Half-centuries from AB de Villiers, Hashim Amla and David Miller have fired South Africa to victory over the West Indies in their rain-affected first one-day international.

The trio helped the Proteas to 279-8 before the players were taken off in the penultimate over of the innings, and the rain stayed persistent in Durban for several hours.

West Indies were set a revised target of 215 from 33 overs, but three wickets apiece for Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Imran Tahir restricted them to 164 all out.

Jerome Taylor dismissed Rilee Rossouw and Faf du Plessis for ducks to leave South Africa 14-2, but their big guns helped them recover to 238-3.

Amla made a run-a-ball 66 before he was run out attempting a second to Andre Russell on the third man boundary, and Miller (70) then came together with De Villers (81) to put on 123 for the fourth wicket.

The tourists had let a promising position slip, but actually did well to prevent South Africa from reaching 300 as Sulieman Benn snaffled De Villiers and Jason Holder had Miller caught before two Russell wickets.

After the rain subsided and the ground dried, the Windies made an encouraging start to chasing down their Duckworth-Lewis amended total as Chris Gayle blasted 41 from 24 balls to quickly take them past 50.

He was caught behind attempting to hook a Steyn bouncer, and his side never truly recovered as Leon Johnson and Marlon Samuels went cheaply, and Dwayne Smith failed to kick on after getting through the new ball with 29.

Denesh Ramdin was doing his best to give West Indies a chance going into the latter stages, but ill-advised strokes from Jonathan Carter, Darren Sammy, and Russell, left the wicketkeeper stranded with the tail.

He was bowled by Tahir for 31 before Steyn returned to finish the job with the wickets of Holder, who was captaining the Windies in an ODI for the first time, and Taylor as the Proteas claimed a comfortable 61-run victory.