Once more Chris Gayle won the toss and once more he chose to bowl first. Hashim Amla and AB De Villiers were in prolific form as they both raced to centuries in the first One Day International between South Africa and West Indies in Antigua.

It is promising that while Graeme Smith and Jacques Kallis failed Hashim and AB were able to rescue the innings calmly. South Africa were in trouble at 57 for 2 with the good start made my Amla and Smith nullified by the fall of two quick wickets. Amla and de Villiers stayed the course though, seeing off the West Indian fightback and were soon in control of the match. Much of the innings offered no fancy shots or boundary fireworks. Hashim and AB simply went about collecting the singles and twos on offer and making no mistake in sending the bad balls to the boundary. While 300 seemed an almost certain score with Amla and De Villiers at the crease their demise stalled the run flow in the rain-recuded 48 over match.

While it is reassuring to see keeping duties have not affected AB’s batting, one wonders if AB is a plausible long-term solution. His keeping is adequate but in a tighter match, against better opponents, errant wides and byes could prove our undoing. I remember Mickey Arthur pointing out a chronic back problem on AB that prevents him from keeping more regularly, so I’m particularly intrigued to see what the selectors will do next. While the boys took the field in their new kit Mark Boucher in shorts and sunglasses cut a nonplussed figure in the South African dressing room on Saturday. He’s been a loyal servant of South African cricket and his contribution to the team goes beyond his keeping and batting. One would almost go so far as saying he’s been indispensable to The Proteas but then a look at Saturday’s result proves otherwise. Has Boucher been vanquished? If the selectors feel it’s time to blood a younger keeper into the team then we’d hope it’s done with delicacy and some respect to Boucher.

The West Indies faced a Duckworth-Lewis revised total of 282 to win. Chris Gayle must be the most imposing batsman in world cricket and dropping him early in his innings is always likely to prove costly. Gayle was dropped twice, first by debutante Miller early on and again by Hashim Amla. Fortunately for The Proteas, while Gayle did play a few manufacuted shots he was soon out miscuing a shot to Johan Botha at midwicket. The dropped catches continue a worrying fielding trend on this series. While the Antigua wind could shoulder some of the blame for these dropped catches, we were lucky not to have paid more dearly for them. The West Indies were eventually bowled out for 215 in the 45th over and will no doubt be licking their wounds, poising themselves to strike back.