Duminy continued his fine recent form but his efforts were in vain

Debutant David Warner hit the second-fastest Twenty20 fifty as Australia beat South Africa by 52 runs.

The 22-year-old, who has yet to make his first-class debut but has impressed in domestic one-dayers for New South Wales, blasted 89 runs off 43 balls.

Australia scored 182-9 off their 20 overs and South Africa struggled early in their reply.

They slumped to 12-3 and although JP Duminy conjured an inventive 78 off 48 balls, Australia were easy winners.

The Proteas lost wickets in each of the first three overs as Australia bounced back from their recent Test series defeat by South Africa.

And it was Warner, only the third Australian in 158 years to represent his country before making his first-class debut, who stole the show with a man-of-the-match performance.

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In just over an hour, Warner smashed six sixes and seven fours to register the joint fifth-highest Twenty20 international score, and the third best by an Australian.

He also posted the sixth-fastest international half-century in all forms of the game with his 50 coming off just 19 balls.

Only Yuvraj Singh has hit a faster half-century in Twenty20 internationals, reaching the mark off 12 balls against England in Durban in 2007.

Warner's heroics enabled Australia to set a challenging target despite losing seven wickets for 42 runs in the final 38 balls.

Once Warner had gone in the 14th over the hosts lost momentum with Dale Steyn, Australia's nemesis in the Test series, claiming 3-38.

Duminy mounted an impressive salvage operation after the tourists' poor start.

He collected nine fours and one six - an outrageous scoop over wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi off Shaun Tait's bowling - but his dismissal, lbw trying to reverse-sweep David Hussey, all but ended the tourists' bid for victory.

Tait, in his first match for Australia in nearly a year, bowled with extreme pace and fire to finish with 2-36, while Hussey claimed 3-25.

The world's three leading news agencies are not covering the series because of a dispute with Cricket Australia.

Reuters, Agence France-Presse and Associated Press have suspended all coverage of the 2008-09 season.

Their photographers and reporters did not supply material from within the ground. As a result, we cannot use pictures from the current match.

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