Rain prevented play in the first One-Day International between India and South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday.

True to predictions, the weather played a cat and mouse game and heavy clouds kept coming in from the north-west of the Wanderers ground, dashing all optimism the crowd, umpires and officials might have harboured of a good game of cricket.

Steady rain began falling half-an-hour before the scheduled 2.30 pm local time start and continued until the umpires called off play at 6.45 pm.

The teams now travel to the coastal city of Durban for the second match in the five-game series on Wednesday.

There was one brief moment when it appeared that the match would start as umpires Billy Doctrove and Brian Jerling privately suggested that it could be a 39-over affair.

But no sooner the suggestion was made, than it started raining again, forcing everyone indoors.