South Africa tactics leaked after hotel room mix up

However, Amla and Rilee Rossouw took the game to the New Zealand bowlers and quickly established a strong partnership at the crease.

Cricket South Africa chief executive Haroon Lorgat, meanwhile, said the experiment of playing matches in August had been successful so far, with near-capacity crowds attending the T20 matches.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson narrowly avoids being run out during the first ODI against South Africa.

Guptill injured his left wrist while fielding and did not open the batting as usual. Martin Guptill (25), who came at number four because of the injury sustained in the first innings, was dropped on three by Wiese (2-63) at slip and he brought some tempo cracking a six and couple of fours. David Wiese made his debut for the Protea and the likes of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir were back in their squad.

The visitor depends a lot on Kane Williamson, leading the side captain in McCullum’s absence, and will seek an improved performance from its middle order.

The Kiwis pulled the score back in the latter overs by picking up both Amla and Rossouw, and then AB de Villiers for nine. “We should have won by a bigger margin”. It takes a bit of time to get things going and hopefully we can hit our straps on Sunday. “Perhaps a good fielding session is needed before the next game”.

Amla hadn’t topped 50 in any format since the World Cup in March but class is permanent and he tormented New Zealand with his 21st ODI century. In seven of those innings he failed to reach 20.

Amla fell soon after that, scoring a superb 124 runs off 126 balls which involved 13 fours and 3 sixes.

Amla was unaffected by his partner’s dismissal and continued attacking McClenaghan before New Zealand managed a small squeeze. When Rossouw swatted Grant Elliott to deep square leg, he found more height than distance but Milne misjudged the catch to let Rossouw off on 32.

That may be so but the tectonic plates shifted beneath the Proteas’ feet when New Zealand knocked them out of a second successive World Cup in February. New Zealand were all out for 284 falling 20 runs short of the South African total.