South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis lauded Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane on their performance as their 189-run third wicket partnership helped the Men in Blue chase down the hosts' target with ease.
Du Plessis scored his 9th ODI ton as well in the first innings and it was the skipper alone who took on the responsibility to project runs on the board after the middle order batsmen had a mini-collapse. The swashbuckler scored 120 runs to help South Africa reach 269 runs at Kingsmead, Durban.
Proteas skipper who led the hosts to 2-1 Test series win against India said that the intensity in One Day cricket is a lot higher than the five-day matches with the red ball.
"Went upstairs to get my finger checked. One day cricket, the intensity is a lot higher. We did not bat well enough. We were at least 50-60 short", said du Plessis.
Du Plessis said that the conditions were a bit slower and suited the Men in Blue quite well as the batting line-up hammered away after the Proteas set up an easy target of 270 for the Virat Kohli led Team India.
"The conditions were a little slower in the first innings. India with a strong batting line-up batted really well. I tried everything. Field placements, different tactics but Virat and Rahane played really well".
The Proteas skipper lauded the Indian captain and Rahane on their winning knocks, saying that they played really well.
South Africa were without their swashbuckler AB de Villiers as he suffered an injury in the finger and has been ruled out for the first three-ODIs of the six-match series.
South Africa will host India in the second ODI on February 4 at Centurion.
