Warner played the innings of a lifetime that forced his captain, Ricky Ponting, to draw comparisons with the legendary Adam Gilchrist. The new cap, who has unbelievably still to play a first-class match for New South Wales, made 89 off only 43 balls with six fours and seven sixes. His 50 came off only 19 deliveries to be the second fastest of all time behind Yuvraj Singh's 12-ball effort for India against England at the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup.
Although he is a small man, the left-handed Warner hits the ball with tremendous power and even Proteas spearhead Dale Steyn came off second best against him.
Once the Proteas got rid of him, they managed to close the Australians down fairly effectively but the damage had already been done and the home side's total of 182 was always going to be a difficult one to match
It became impossible when the Proteas lost their first three wickets for 12 runs and, in spite of Duminy's 78 off 49 balls with nine fours and a six, they finished well short, going down to defeat by 52 runs with two overs left unbowled.
While Warner impressed with his power hitting, Duminy played an innings of audacity, imagination and skill. It was as close as any batsman comes to playing purist's innings in this form of the game although his knock did include a cheeky pick-up over fine leg for six to a delivery from Australian paceman Shaun Tait.
It was a strange match in that, apart from Warner and Duminy, no other batsman got beyond the 20s.
The Proteas went in largely blind against Warner, not having come across him before, and they will certainly need to come up with a good game plan to counter him in Tuesday's second match in Brisbane.
AB de Villiers took a nasty blow on the hip when he was dismissed and an assessment of his fitness will have to wait until the morning.
Australia - Shaun Marsh, David Warner, Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Hussey, David Hussey, Cameron White, James Hopes, Luke Ronchi (wk), Nathan Bracken, Ben Hilfenhaus, Shaun Tait
South Africa - Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, Vaughn van Jaarsveld, Mark Boucher (wk), Albie Morkel, Johan Botha (capt), Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini, Lonwabo Tsostobe
