AB de Villiers leads South Africa to series-opening win over New Zealand

The Proteas won the toss and elected to field and captain AB de Villiers' call paid immediate dividends when the hosts collapsed to be 68-5.

But a Luke Ronchi (99) rearguard gave the Black Caps 230 runs to work with, only for De Villiers (89 not out) and JP Duminy (58 not out) to steer the tourists to victory with 11 balls to spare.

Proteas paceman Vernon Philander (2-38) had both NZ openers back in the pavilion by the 10th over, each of Martin Guptill (five) and Jimmy Neesham (16) edging through to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock.

Then, De Villiers' men snared 3-0 in seven balls to swing the match significantly in their favour - Imran Tahir finding the edge of Dean Brownlie (24) to De Kock before Morne Morkel got on a hat-trick.

Morkel (2-39) dismissed captain Brendon McCullum (16) before Corey Anderson played onto his stumps for a first-ball duck to leave the hosts reeling.

But former Australia international Ronchi put on a 65-run stand with Tom Latham (29), and a 74-run partnership with tail-ender Trent Boult (21) for the 10th wicket to give the Black Caps hope.

Ronchi could not get his maiden international ton, however, edging a Dale Steyn (1-28) delivery to become De Kock's sixth dismissal.

After getting his tail up with a handy cameo with the bat, Boult snared the wickets of De Kock (nine) and Faf du Plessis (eight) cheaply to restrict South Africa to 30-2.

Rilee Rossouw (26) and opener Hashim Amla (38) got starts before departing in the 19th and 25th overs respectively, before De Villiers and Duminy guided the South Africans to victory with an unbeaten 139-run stand.

The two sides will do battle in the second ODI at the same venue on Friday.