Thanks to a spectacular batting display from the opening batsman, Quinton de Kock, the Proteas is leading 1-0 in the one-day series against Australia after they beat the visitors with six wickets in the first match at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Friday.

The day started good for the South Africans. Faf du Plessis won the toss and with his knowledge of the conditions in Centurion, seen that it is his home ground, he decided to send the visitors in to bat first.

The Aussies started their innings on a steady gallop. David Warner and Aaron Finch found their feet quite early and started to play good shots from the bowling of Dale Steyn and Kagiso Rabada.

It took a bowling change to break the partnership of Warner and Finch. Wayne Parnell did that in the tenth over when Andile Phehlukwayo caught Warner (40) at mid-wicket from his bowling.

Australia had to regroup when Phehlukwayo took over the bowling from Steyn and struck twice in the same over. First Parnell caught Finch (33) at short fine-leg and a few balls later Steven Smith had to walk back after he was caught lbw by Phehlukwayo.

With the Aussies on 90/3, George Baily and Mitchell Marsh had to consolidate first before they could try to push the run rate again. Just when they settled in, Phehlukwayo struck again when Quinton de Kock caught Marsh (31) from his bowling.

After Travis Head (18) was stumped by De Kock and David Miller ran out Matthew Wade (5), Bailey had to build a partnership again. He did this very well with John Hastings when they scored 79 runs for the seventh wicket before Hastings was caught by Farhaan Behardien to give Phehlukwayo his fourth wicket.

Adam Zampa (12), Daniel Worral (6*) and Scott Boland (3*) eventually got Australia to 294 in their allotted 50 overs. This meant that the home team had to score at 6 runs per over to win the game.

Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw opened the batting for South Africa and it seemed as if both of them had to catch a train early in the evening. They started hitting boundaries from the very first over and South Africa’s 100 was on the scoreboard with less than 80 balls been bowled. De Kock got to his 50 after facing just 38 balls, while Rossouw did it with only 36 balls.

It took the Aussies 18 overs to get their first wicket when Rilee Rossouw (63) was caught lbw by Adam Zampa.

De Kock went on to get his 11^th hundred in One Day Internationals from only 74 balls. He got to his hundred with a brilliant six and by that time you could see from the body language of the Aussies that he had their wits end.

Still, there was no end to the young De Kock. He went on to get 150 with just more than 100 balls and eventually get to a record score of 178 when he was caught on the boundary by Travis Head from the bowling of Scott Boland. His partnership with Faf du Plessis (26) of 123 runs from 87 balls was probably one of the best ever on this level.

Eventually David Miller (10) and Farhaan Behardien (5) could take South Africa (295/4) pass the winning target in the 37^th over, indicating how big the hiding was that Australia received.