de Villiers steers South Africa to victory

South Africa had laid the groundwork for this morale-boosting victory in the field, but it took a polished innings from AB de Villiers to put the finish touches.

Warning of his intentions came early, two sumptous drives down the ground off Daryl Tuffey. The second, hammered with power to long-on, brought up the team century in the 21st over. He didn't lag thereafter, embellishing his presence with lovely clips off the pads and excellent judgment of singles and doubles.

At 138 for 4 the wobble was on. Until this time singles had come without bother, so vital to South Africa's progress but sporadically, to give the fans something to purr about, de Villiers found the boundary. One over given to Martin Guptill proved an error as de Villiers hammered consecutive fours. de Villiers cut Daniel Vettori and showed off some smart footwork and running between the wickets to go with peachy on-drives.

He took the odd risk with Mark Boucher offering solid support, and despite another twist in the tail at 180 for 5, de Villiers stormed on to finish the job.