De Villiers sets breathtaking new century record

South Africa 439 for 2 (Amla 153*, de Villiers 149, Rossouw 128) beat West Indies 291 for 7 (Smith 64, Ramdin 57) by 148 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Plays smashes ODI record

AB de Villiers ripped up the record books with the fastest century in ODIs, off just 31 balls to beat the previous quickest set by Corey Anderson off 36 balls little more than a year ago, as South Africa beat their own record at the Wanderers and racked up 439, four shy of the world record total of 443.

De Villiers' was the third hundred in a towering South African total - the first time three had been scored in an ODI innings - which also saw Rilee Rossouw register his maiden century andHashim Amla his 18th, a career-best 153 not out, in the highest opening stand South Africa have ever posted of 247.

In less than an hour, de Villiers took an innings which was building well and turned it into a skyscraper. He clobbered 16 sixes, the most by a South African and the joint-highest number of sixes overall in an ODI innings, and dominated a 192-run second-wicket stand with Amla which lasted just 67 deliveries and in which runs were scored at 17.12 to the over. Amla only faced 30 balls and contributed 33. Such was de Villiers' dominance.

None of the the West Indian bowlers were spared as de Villiers put on his full range of strokes. There was the pull, the scoop, the lofted drive and the good old slog and Jason Holder, given the toughest of examinations as a young captain, was hardest hit. De Villiers plundered 45 runs off the nine balls he faced from him, including six of his sixes.

By the time Holder could even consider launching a counter-attack of his own, West Indies' challenge was over. Although they may have had hopes of pulling off something similar to what they did on the same surface last week, when they successfully chased the highest T20 score of 232, West Indies lost Chris Gayle in the fifth over and even though Dwayne Smith and Denesh Ramdin both scored half-centuries, the South African attack were much more difficult to get away than the West Indian one.

Jerome Taylor had the most expensive return for a West Indian bowler in ODIs when his 10 overs cost 95 and Holder was not far behind. His nine overs went for 91. Dwayne Smith also took punishment and finished with an economy of 17 after one of his overs went for 30. Contrastingly, Dale Steyn's 10 overs went for just 29 runs and Morne Morkel's for 43 as the pair demonstrated how to operate on a batsmen-friendly surface. They used the short well sparingly and bowled at good pace but ultimately West Indies did not have the same structure to their innings as South Africa did.