South Africa vs. West Indies, 1st ODI, 2015: Highlights, Scorecard and Report

South Africa (279/8) defeated West Indies (164/10) by 61 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method on Friday, taking the ODI series lead after a long day in Durban, which saw play halted due to stormy weather on multiple occasions.

The hosts won the toss and elected to bat first, but their innings had a rocky start. Opener Hashim Amla lost two partners in quick succession, with both Rilee Rossouw and Faf du Plessis dismissed before they could manage a single run.

AB de Villiers was the next man up, and he started a strong partnership with Amla that took the Proteas well beyond 100 runs.

			Runs	Minutes	Balls
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Amla	run out (Russell)		66	87	66
Rossouw		b Taylor	0	12	5
du Plessis	lbw	b Taylor	0	9	7
de Villiers	c Russell	b Benn	81	156	94
Miller	c Dwayne Smith	b Holder	70	87	68
Duminy	c Ramdin	b Russell	12	30	17
Behardien	run out (Russell)		12	14	9
Philander	c Johnson	b Russell	4	17	8
Steyn	not out		6	15	13
M Morkel	not out		2	5	3
Extras	0nb 11w 4b 11lb		26
Total	for 8 (48.2 ovs)		279
Taylor	9.2	0	50	2
Holder	9.0	1	52	1
Russell	10.0	0	51	2
Sammy	10.0	0	52	0
Benn	10.0	0	59	1

De Villiers started out rather slowly but gradually increased the pressure, and after Amla was run out for 66 from 87, he continued his stand with powerful batsman David Miller. They too cracked the mark of 100 runs together, via Cricket South Africa:

The Windies group of bowlers looked to be in real danger of being blown out of the water, but led by Jerome Taylor and Andre Russell, they rectified the situation late. Jean-Paul Duminy, Farhaan Behardien and Vernon Philander were all dismissed in quick succession, limiting the eventual score the team would have to chase.

Russell used some fancy footwork to run out Behardien, as you can see in this video:

All Windies' bowlers would end the innings with economy ratings between 5.10 and 5.90, highlighting the improved consistency throughout the over.

Heading into the final overs, dark clouds started to gather above the stadium. Rain soon started pouring down, accompanied by heavy winds that did some serious damage to a number of the advertisement boards.

Cricket writer Neil Manthorp shared this image of the conditions:

The wind gave hope the storm would soon blow over, with West Indies likely forced to start their chase in limited overs. Umpires took hours to make an eventual decision, with the pitch covered in water, but late in the evening, it was confirmed Windies would play 33 overs and chase a target of 229.

The fact the match was able to continue was a huge testament to the groundskeepers, via Manthorp:

Windies target would have been a manageable one on a good pitch, provided the team employed a Twenty20-mentality and simply started smashing balls out of the park.

But as shared by ESPN Cricinfo's Freddie Wilde, conditions were ill-suited for an explosive chase:

Facing a required run rate of 6.75, Dwayne Smith and Chris Gayle came out swinging. Morne Morkel in particular took a beating during the first overs, and Freddie Wilde started believing:

This fan shared footage of one of Gayle's sixes, an impressive blast that nearly took out a cameraman:

Dale Steyn would eventually take him out in the sixth over, but not after the powerful batsman contributed 41 runs from 26 balls.

Gayle's dismissal appeared to take all of the wind out of West Indies' sails. Leon Johnson contributed little and the team's run rate dropped like an anvil, putting them on the back foot heading into the middle overs.

			Runs	Minutes	Balls
Bowler	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Dwayne Smith	lbw	b Tahir	29	74	38
Gayle	c de Villiers	b Steyn	41	27	24
Johnson	lbw	b Philander	0	6	6
Samuels	run out (Behardien)		12	26	16
Ramdin	not out		31	65	32
Carter	st de Villiers	b Tahir	17	21	26
Sammy	c de Villiers	b Philander	4	8	8
Russell	c de Villiers	b Philander	19	8	8
Holder	not out		5	10	5
Taylor	not out		0		0
Extras	0nb 5w 1b 1lb	Extras	7
Total	for 7 (27.1 ovs)	Total	165
Taylor	9.2	0	50	2
Holder	9.0	1	52	1
Russell	10.0	0	51	2
Sammy	10.0	0	52	0
Benn	10.0	0	59	1

Marlon Samuels perhaps best illustrated the team's struggles with a lazy run-out, prompting this tweet from ESPN Cricinfo's Sambit Bal, who had seen enough:

The chase became just about hopeless, and fans and players alike were just hoping for a quick end. Another shower nearly brought play to an end, with stumps being pulled before the umpires recalled the players. The target was reset to 72 from the next six overs, a daunting task.

Steyn stepped up and dismissed back-to-back batsman to end the match, giving the Proteas a 1-0 lead in the ODI series. He combined with Imran Tahir for six wickets, with Vernon Philander also contributing three, although the wicket of Gayle was by far the most important.

Windies' captain Jason Holder told ESPN Cricinfo he felt his team had a good start to their innings but couldn't cope with the loss of Gayle:

"

We made a start but lost our way in the middle. That's the nature of Chris, he's a counter-attacking batsman, he gave us a decent start but SA got the better of us. It's a problem we've been having for a period of time, we've got to try and correct it. It's pretty good, a good challenge, we felt they were getting away form us but managed to fight back. We need to cut out the bad balls and to rotate the strike a bit better next time.

"

With preparations for the World Cup in full swing, Windies' biggest issues remain their inconsistency and an over-reliance on the powerful Gayle. The Jamaican provides runs and momentum to the squad when he's in form, but as soon as he falters, the team collapses. As things stand, West Indies don't look like contenders for this year's title.

The next ODI will be played on Sunday in Johannesburg, the second in a series of five.

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