South African captain AB de Villiers has apologised to Faf du Plessis for effectively costing his best mate a chance at making one-day history in their tri-series final win over Australia in Harare.

The two men involved in verbal exchanges with Australia during the heated third Test in Cape Town earlier this year had their revenge on Saturday, with Dale Steyn named man-of-the-match after taking 4-35 and du Plessis a clear player of the series for scoring three hundreds and 96 in the final.

But despite the sweetness of victory over a bitter rival, du Plessis was left to wonder what might have been after falling agonisingly short of a world record.

Du Plessis was shooting to become the first player ever to score four centuries in an ODI tournament – including World Cups.

He would have also become only the sixth man to post a ton in three consecutive innings.

However, it wasn’t to be and it was up to de Villiers to accept the blame.

With du Plessis down the non-striker’s end on 92, de Villiers got excited and smashed three boundaries on the trot to pass 50.

But that brought the Proteas score to 3-212 chasing 218 to win, meaning du Plessis needed to smash successive fours to bring up the rare milestone.

Du Plessis had no problem dispatching Johnson’s first delivery to the fence, but a couple of balls later the pressure told and he skied one straight up in the air.

It was an unnecessary end given there was still 55 balls left in the innings and seven wickets in hand.

Post-match de Villiers admitted he’d dudded du Plessis of his place in the record books.

“I sort of lost track of where he was at to be very honest with you,” said de Villiers.

“I was just watching the scoreboard and counting down every run.

“In that last over when Faffy was in the 90s he reminded me and said ‘listen, I’m close to my hundred here bud’.

“I said ‘oh shit, sorry I forgot about that’.

“And we tried our best to get him to that milestone but unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.

“If I could have that time over I would have allowed him to get to that century a little bit easier. But he understands.”

Meanwhile, de Villiers praised Steyn as the best exponent of reverse swing bowling in the world after he decimated Australia’s batting.

Australia and South Africa will meet again in November, with the Proteas relishing the prospect of testing themselves down under ahead of February’s World Cup.