South Africa's Charl Langeveldt (left) celebrates the wicket of West Indies batsman Dwayne Bravo, during the first one-day International in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday. - AP photos

CENTURION, South Africa (CMC):

A battling West Indies team just didn't have the depth of available resources to deny South Africa, as the home team overcame a poor start to reach their target in the rain-affected first One-Day International yesterday at SuperSport Park.

In contrast to the visitors who are continuing to struggle with injuries, the hosts fielded a potent bowling attack to restrict their opponents to 175 in 35.5 overs before Jean-Paul Duminy showed his potential with a decisive innings of 79 not out to guide his team to victory with two overs to spare and earn the 'Man of the Match' award in a fixture reduced to 36 overs-a-side.

Despite the loss in the opening encounter of the five-match series, West Indies will be especially grateful for the four-day break before the second match is played under lights on Friday at Sahara Park Newlands in Cape Town.

Time to recover

It will give them more time for captain Chris Gayle to recover from his fractured thumb, vice-captain Dwayne Bravo to overcome the discomfort of a side strain, and Jerome Taylor to be fully fit again after being rested from this match as a precautionary measure, following yet another niggling injury during the second and final Twenty20 fixture in Johannesburg last Friday.

Admitting after the match that he was a bowler short because he feared that Marlon Samuels would not have been effective in the damp conditions, Bravo risked aggravating his injury by bowling four overs in a desperate attempt for a breakthrough.

He achieved it, accounting for Justin Ontong for 23 via a typically spectacular caught-and-bowled effort with just his second delivery to break a 59-run, fourth-wicket partnership with Duminy.

But there was to be no more success for the stand-in captain or any of the other bowlers, and South Africa eased to their target with experienced wicketkeeper/batsman Mark Boucher stroking an unbeaten 26 in partnering Duminy in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 58.

The bowlers

The apparent ease with which they completed the win contrasted sharply with their early struggles as opening bowlers Daren Powell and Fidel Edwards each struck early to reduce the Proteas to four for two.

Captain Graeme Smith was bowled off the inside edge by Powell and Abraham de Villiers was well held by Samuels off a miscued pull at backward point off Edwards.

When Jacques Kallis skied an attempted on-side flick to Ravi Rampaul to give wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin a comfortable catch, a crowd in excess of 16,000 was silenced as the prospect of defeat became real at 59 for three in the 16th over.

Duminy however, found a steady partner in Ontong and the pair pushed ahead of the required rate in the midst of a prolonged drizzle that raised fears of an abandonment and implementation of the complicated Duckworth-Lewis system.

They were aided by the inability of support bowlers Darren Sammy and Rampaul to maintain a consistent line, while some of the fielding lacked the sharpness and purpose seen previously on this tour the damp conditions did not help their cause.

Duminy, a compact, 23-year-old, Western Province left-hander, reached his highest score in 21 ODIs in an innings highlighted by one six and nine fours off 88 deliveries.

Although challenged by the pace and hostility of Edwards especially, his was a composed effort that only faltered in the midst of an increasing sense of panic that they would have been behind the required scoring rate had the light rain intensified into match-ending showers approaching the 20th over.

Match extend

That the match actually extended beyond sunset and required the full effect of the lights was due to a defiant seventh-wicket partnership between Darren Sammy, whose 51 was the top score for West Indies, and Runako Morton with 41 after Bravo lost another vital toss.

Steady rain had delayed the start by over three hours and there was never any doubt that Smith would have put the West Indies in after his opposite number called incorrectly.

Devon Smith's miserable run continued when, on five, he edged Dale Steyn to his South African namesake at first slip to become the first casualty of the innings.

West Indies batsman Darren Sammy, celebrates after scoring a half century, during the first one-day cricket International in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday.