Klaasen's maiden century secures comfortable win for South Africa

The rescue effort with the bat for South Africa was not achieved single-handedly, with debutant Kyle Verreynne's 48 and David Miller's 64 both providing support to Klaasen's starring role.

Australia, having lost the toss, got off to an ideal start with the ball as Mitchell Starc pinned South Africa's other debutant, Janneman Malan, on the toe with a fantastic inswinging delivery with the first ball of the game. After a review from Australian captain Aaron Finch, Malan was sent on his way with the dubious honour of becoming only the third player in ODIs to be dismissed by the first ball of the match on debut.

Temba Bavuma, returning to the side following an injury, and Quinton de Kock looked to steady the ship, but instead both players fell trying to run deliveries down to third man. De Kock managed only a feather of a top edge through to the keeper, before Bavuma bottom-edged on to his stumps to leave the innings teetering at 48/3.

But Verreynne took charge, and together with Klaasen made use of the large outfield to pick up runs without taking risks to find the boundary; just 16 of the 78 runs the pair put on together came from boundaries. The No.4 fell just short of a fifty on debut though, picking out Mitchell Marsh at mid-wicket with a pull shot to give Pat Cummins his 100th ODI wicket.

Miller picked up where Verreynne left off however, and he and Klaasen took control of the game for South Africa. Klaasen notched a maiden ODI ton before putting his foot down, scoring a six and a four from the two balls following the landmark. Miller was finally dismissed in the 49th over, ending a partnership worth 149 at better than run-a-ball, but the damage had been done.

Another wicket each for Cummins and Starc in the final nine balls left them with figures of 3/45 and 2/59 respectively, while Klaasen finished unbeaten on 123 out of South Africa's total of 291/7.

Lungi Ngidi made the early breakthroughs for the hosts, first getting Finch to feather a short ball behind before Verreynne took an excellent catch diving forward at point to send Warner packing.

Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne set about consolidating the innings, picking up ones and twos wherever possible, but tight bowling from the South Africa spinners, along with Andile Phehlukwayo, severely limited the opportunities for boundaries. Coming together just before the end of the first Powerplay, Smith brought up his half century in the 27th over having struck just a single boundary from the 10th ball he faced.

Two balls later, Labuschagne succumbed to the pressure and he holed out to long on for 41. New batsman Marsh finally broke the boundary drought, timing a beautiful drive down the ground 18 overs after the previous boundary, and the reintroduction of the pace of Anrich Nortje and Ngidi allowed Smith to collect a couple of boundaries himself.

But Ngidi produced a magnificent delivery to clean bowl Marsh, seaming back in off a length to hit the top of off stump, and leaving evermore pressure on the No.3. And next over Nortje got one to nip back himself, trapping Smith deep in his crease – leg-before for 76.

Alex Carey struggled to get going, not scoring a run until his ninth ball and eventually holed out to long off for a 16-ball five. He was soon followed by Starc – run out by a sharp piece of work by de Kock – and then D'Arcy Short – who charged past a delivery from Tabraiz Shamsi and was stumped for 18. Cummins fell to another spectacular catch by Verreynne, and Nortje finished the game off by making a mess of Hazlewood's stumps.

The second ODI will be played on Wednesday 4 March in Bloemfontein.