Captain Brendon McCullum is shouldering the blame for New Zealand’s six-wicket loss to South Africa in the opening one-day international after letting the tourists off the hook.

McCullum saw his bowlers reduce the Proteas to 3-35 inside 10 overs at Westpac Stadium in Wellington on Saturday in their chase for 254 before opposing skipper AB de Villiers hit an unbeaten 106 to guide his team to a comfortable win with 28 balls left.

The stand-in captain says the Black Caps allowed De Villiers too much latitude early in his innings and were made to pay for it.

“We probably sat for too long and allowed a world-class player to get in… we didn’t try and turn the screw.

“I’ve got to take the responsibility, we probably backed off a bit,” he said.

De Villiers, who chalked up his 13th one-day ton in a classy innings, got support from JP Duminy (46) to put on 90 for the fourth wicket to rebuild the innings, while Faf du Plessis belted a brutal 66 to add 129 with his captain to see them home.

McCullum, who top-scored with 56 in the home side’s innings of 9-253, would have liked 20 to 30 runs more but felt their score was competitive.

“Our batting was pretty good, we just lacked that real punch at the end and a guy going on to get a big score,” he said.

De Villiers, who bashed offspinner Rob Nicol for four sixes in his innings, praised the efforts of Duminy, Du Plessis and paceman Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

McCullum, who successfully appealed against two umpiring decisions that gave him out early in his innings, and Kane Williamson (55) both seemed set for big scores when they fell as South Africa grabbed wickets at key times to dent the home side’s momentum.