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Proteas elect to field in rain delayed encounter

Cape Town - South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl in the rain-shortened opening one day international against New Zealand in Hamilton on Sunday.

LIVE: NZ v Proteas, 1st ODI

The match has been reduced to 34 overs a side after three hours were lost because of the weather.

"It looks a little tacky," South Africa captain AB de Villiers said of the outfield.

"Hopefully we can restrict them to a defendable total."

Kagiso Rabada, South Africa's bowling spearhead in the absence of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, comes into the side after being rested for the tour opener Twenty20 won by South Africa by 78 runs in Auckland on Friday.

New Zealand have Ross Taylor back in their line up after his notable omission from the Twenty20 side with the senior batsmen 51 runs away from becoming the fourth New Zealander to reach 6,000 runs in ODIs.

Both sides have had a solid build up in recent weeks with South Africa having beaten Sri Lanka 5-0 to move to the top of the world ODI rankings while New Zealand beat Australia 2-0 to move up to third.

South Africa do have the psychological edge having cruised to a comfortable 78-run win in the one-off Twenty20.

The tourists are also one win way from equalling their best ODI winning streak of 12 set in 2005.

Teams:

New Zealand:

Dean Brownlie, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor, Neil Broom, James Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult

South Africa:

Hashim Amla, Quinton de Kock, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers (capt), JP Duminy, Farhaan Behardein, Chris Morris, Imran Tahir, Andile Phehulkwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi

Umpires: Joel Wilson (WIS), Wayne Knights (NZL)

Third umpire: Rod Tucker (AUS)

Match referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)

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