Kane Williamson hit only the second century for New Zealand on their tour of South Africa to spur his team to a total of 279 for eight in the second one-day international at the Diamond Oval on Tuesday.

Williamson bounced back from a disappointing Test series with a confident, stroke-filled innings, reaching his third one-day international hundred off exactly 100 balls with 14 fours. He was hampered by cramp in the later stages of his innings but finished with 145 not out off 136 balls.

It was the first century for the tourists since Martin Guptill made a match-winning 101 not out in the second Twenty20 international in East London in December. Williamson and Grant Elliott (48) put on 127 for the third wicket off 128 balls to enable New Zealand to recover from a slow start in which they were no runs for the loss of Martin Guptill's wicket after three overs after being sent in.

New Zealand were seeking their first win in any series in South Africa following a tense one-wicket victory in the opening encounter of the three-match series in Paarl on Saturday. South Africa were captained for the first time by Faf du Plessis after AB de Villiers was suspended for two matches because of a slow over rate in Paarl.

The hosts lost further experience in their batting order when Hashim Amla was ruled out because of a strained right quad muscle. Farhaan Behardien, making his one-day international debut, and David Miller replaced De Villiers and Amla, while Morne Morkel replaced Dale Steyn in a rotation of fast bowlers. Morkel took three wickets but was hit for 71 runs in his ten overs.

scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND:

M Guptill c Du Plessis b Kleinveldt 0
B Watling lbw b Morkel 12
K Williamson not out 145
G Elliott c De Kock b Kleinveldt 48
B McCullum b Morkel 17
C Munro c Ingram b Tsotsobe 9
J Franklin b Tsotsobe 0
J Neesham run out 5
N McCullum c Tsotsobe b Morkel 19
K Mills not out 15
EXTRAS: (lb4, w5) 9
TOTAL: (8 wkts, 50 overs) 279
FOW: 1-0, 2-32, 3-159, 4-188, 5-201, 6-202, 7-211, 8-245
BOWLING: Kleinveldt 10-2-45-2, Tsotsobe 10-2-38-2, Morkel 10-1-71-3, McLaren 8-0-57-0, Peterson 9-0-45-0, Du Plessis 3-0-19-0
SOUTH AFRICA: F du Plessis, G Smith, Q de Kock, C Ingram, F Behardien, D Miller, R McLaren, R Peterson, R Kleinveldt, M Morkel, L Tsotsobe
TOSS: South Africa
UMPIRES: Aleem Dar (PAK), Johan Cloete (RSA)
TV UMPIRE: Enamul Haque (BAN)
MATCH REFEREE: David Boon (AUS)