South Africa yesterday gave a strong message to their hosts Bangladesh that they were a hard nut to crack no matter what conditions they were in.

Asked to launch their series on a low and turning wicket yesterday at Mirpur, that resembles a typical sub-continent pitch, the visitors out-batted and out-bowled an impressive Tigers who were increasingly looking a tough team to beat in their own den in recent times that included ODI series wins against Pakistan and India.

Faf du Plessis led the tourists from the front with a composed unbeaten 79-run knock to clinch a 52-run victory in the first T20I of the two-match series.

The margin of defeat may look big, but the home side can feel they missed an opportunity to run down South Africa's 148 after yet another impressive bowling performance from the Tigers. But the batters, who refused to curb their natural aggressive play on a different wicket, eventually joined a long procession towards the dressing room playing expansive shots.

The bowlers, especially the spinners, responded well to the ploy of trapping the Proteas on slow and low wicket. However, the opponents' army of slow bowlers more than matched that on a wicket that offered more help in the second innings where their pacers were also successful with short-ball ploy.

The target of 149 was not a very difficult one to chase down. What the Tigers needed was someone to play sensibly like South Africa skipper du Plessis, who used his Chennai Super Kings experience to adjust to the conditions. But the local batsmen simply forgot that every ball was not meant to be hit for four or six and even a T20 game is more about the rotation of strikes.

Openers Tamim Iqbal and Soumya Sarkar paid the penalty for chasing those short balls. Kyle Abbott made the visitors' intention clear to attack despite the dead pitch as the right-arm paceman began with a flurry of short balls and got Tamim, who gloved a down-the-leg delivery to keeper Quinton de Kock.

Kagiso Rabada also followed the same strategy from the other end and delivered a bouncer which Soumya tried to pull but could not control and offered a simple catch to JP Duminy at deep square-leg.

After losing two wickets in two overs for 13 runs on the board, Bangladesh desperately needed a partnership and one-down Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim looked to take the opportunity, but the latter went down the track against spinner Duminy and whipped it in the air only to find the man at deep midwicket that ended the 37-run stand.

Left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso and Duminy, who extracted prodigious turn, bowled brilliantly in the middle overs. They gave only 32 runs in their eight overs and took three wickets to kill Bangladesh's hopes.

Earlier, left-arm spinner Arafat Sunny gave Bangladesh a perfect start after South Africa decided to bat as he sent dangerman AB de Villiers back in the very first over of the innings. Off-spinner Nasir Hossain opened the bowling from the other end and dismissed de Kock as South Africa were reduced to 31 for two.

Experienced Duminy then joined his skipper to share 36 runs for the third wicket before Sunny broke the stand. Shakib dismissed David Miller quickly to overtake Abdur Razzak as the leading Bangladeshi wicket-taker with 45. But Rilee Rossouw along with du Plessis added 58 runs in 6.4 overs in their unbeaten fifth-wicket stand to set a competitive target.

And South Africa skipper credited this partnership behind their success in the first game. "Not the easiest wicket, not a flat T20 wicket, had to graft a lot. Ball was spinning and staying low, we just needed a partnership, and Rilee played really well. That was the match-winning partnership," said du Plessis, who was adjudged player-of-the-match for his 61-ball knock that contained eight boundaries.