Bangalore, June 6:

Shaun Pollock smashed a maiden one-day century, but failed to stop Asia from posting a 34-run win over Africa in the first match of the Afro-Asia cricket series on Wednesday. The South African scored 130 as his team were restricted to 283 while chasing 318-run target to concede a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Asia’s total owed much of its substance to Pakistan’s Mohammad Yousuf (66) and skipper Mahela Jayawardene (65). Asian pacemen Asif (3-57) and Zaheer Khan (2-43) then raised hopes of an easy victory when they shared five early wickets to put Africa under pressure.

Virender Sehwag (45), Sourav Ganguly (32) and Yuvraj Singh (31) also made merry with the bat.