The venue was Newlands, it was a Sunday, every seat was taken and the match was day-night.
These are the similarities between the West Indies' pulsating victory by three runs over South Africa in the World Cup opener last February and today's first of five one-day international, their first in a one-day international since then.
But there are some significant differences.
Carl Hooper is no longer West Indies captain and not even here, dismissed after his team was eliminated in the first round. Brian Lara, Man of the Match then for his 115, replaced him for his second term and has led since.
Like Hooper, Shaun Pollock was also removed after South Africa's failure in the World Cup. He remains a vital all-rounder in the team but now plays under Graeme Smith who was not part of last year's corresponding World Cup loss.
More to the point, the teams have just completed a series of four Tests that South Africa thoroughly dominated with three comfortable victories. The only draw the West Indies managed was also at Newlands.
It should give the home team a psychological head start but the West Indies have several strong motivational factors. They have brought in four fresh players, all of whom were part of an encouraging victory over a strong South Africa 'A' team in Friday's practice match in Paarl.
The memories of their last two ODIs against South Africa, in the World Cup and in the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka the previous October when they lost off the last ball, must be further encouragement.
Their fielding, such a letdown in the Tests but so critical in the shorter game, was immediately spruced up in Friday's match with the addition of Ricardo Powell, who secured two run out dismissals.
Ryan Hurley and Kurt Wilkinson, two of the other newcomers, and Dwayne Smith gave it an altogether sharper edge on Friday.
On the ground where he scored his memorable debut hundred in the Test earlier this month, Smith is certain to play, his batting supplemented by his useful medium-paced bowling.
Hurley's off-spin earned him one wicket for 26 from 7.3 overs on Friday and he is vying for a final spot in the eleven with one of the fast bowlers, possibly his uncle, Vasbert Drakes.
Wilkinson, the 22-year-old Barbadian batsman on his first tour, was certain to make way in any case for Ramnaresh Sarwan, who had his first game of the tour off on Friday. An upset stomach that prevented him from practising yesterday made it official.
For South Africa, the return of Lance Klusener has been given prominence even over the match itself.
When Smith took over the captaincy, he was quoted as saying that even though Klusener was a proven match-winning all-rounder, he was also a disruptive influence within the team.
Omitted from the team for the tour of England last summer on the reported assurance that it was for a deserved rest and merely temporary, Klusener took the United Cricket Board (UCB) to court when he was omitted from the subsequent tour of Pakistan.
He and the UCB have now settled their differences, out of court, even though Smith has made it plain that Klusener is still very much on probation.
"No one man is bigger than the team," Smith said after the squad for the first two ODIs was announced, a sentiment that would be beneficial if repeated by those in charge of West Indies cricket.
The West Indies must remain fearful of Klusener whose 57 off 48 balls with five sixes seemed likely to snatch an unlikely World Cup victory from them until bowler Drakes insisted on Hooper moving himself from mid-on to the deep mid-wicket boundary where he caught his next ball.
After a Test series that featured 21 hundreds and scoring rates regularly approaching five runs an over, it is reasonable to expect sizeable totals on good pitches.
In Gayle, Powell and Smith - not even considering Lara - the West Indies have power to match Klusener's if not the depth to match South Africa's Smith, Herschelle Gibbs, Jacques Kallis, Jacques Rudolph and Mark Boucher, all of whom made hundreds in the Tests.
One way or another, it promises to be more hell for the bowlers.
Teams:
West Indies (from): Brian Lara (captain), Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Ricardo Powell, Dwayne Smith, Ridley Jacobs, Ryan Hurley, Vasbert Drakes, Ian Bradshaw, Merv Dillon, Ravi Rampaul.
South Africa (from): Graeme Smith (captain), Herschelle Gibbs, Boeta Dippenaar, Jacques Kallis, Jacques Rudolph, Ashwell Prince, Morne van Wyk, Mark Boucher, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Albie Morkel, Robin Peterson, Andre Nel, Makhaya Ntini.
Umpires: Darrel; Hair (Australia), Brian Jerling (South Africa).