Ingram made an unbeaten 105 off 104 balls with 10 fours as Pakistan paid a heavy price for using four spinners at Chevrolet Park in the first match of the five-game series.
Ingram added a solid run-a-ball 120 with captain AB de Villiers (65) for the third wicket and propelled the total with a whirlwind 50-run stand with Farhaan Behardien (34) off just 23 deliveries at the end of the innings.
Saeed Ajmal was the pick of the bowlers with 2-53, but Shahid Afridi had a less memorable performance as he played in his 350th ODI, returning figures of 0-60 as Ingram and Faf du Plessis (26) hammered the leg-spinner for five boundaries in one over. Afridi, who was given a last chance by chief selector Iqbal Qasim who picked him for the ODI series as a specialist bowler, did his cause few favors with some unimpressive bowling.
Ingram raised his century in the last over when he hit Umar Gul to the cover boundary for his ninth four in the last over of the innings as the left-hander had little trouble in facing either the two seamers or the four spinners.
Top ranked ODI batsman Hashim Amla (43) and former captain Graeme Smith (30) had earlier laid a solid foundation of 72 runs off 83 balls after Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq won the toss and elected to field first.
Pakistan surprisingly left out the 7-foot-1-inch Mohammad Irfan and packed its playing eleven with four spinners _ a move that backfired on a flat batting pitch.
The two seamers, Gul and Junaid Khan, troubled Amla and Smith early on but once the batsmen settled in, they started to look comfortable. Amla was put down at point by a diving Mohammad Hafeez when he was on 15 before Ajmal struck in the 14th over when Smith mistimed a reverse-sweep and the ball flew back to wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal.
Amla mistimed a lofted shot off Hafeez and holed out in the deep before Ingram and de Villiers carved a century stand with some brisk running between the wickets.
De Villiers raised his 30th ODI half century with an inside out boundary off Ajmal over extra cover before he departed in the 37th over while attempting a similar stroke and was caught at cover by Younis Khan.
Du Plessis and Ingram continued to score at a good tempo with a 62-run fourth wicket stand off 60 balls before Behardien gave the total impetus by hitting two sixes and three fours in his unbeaten knock from 14 balls.
South Africa left out Morne Morkel, who according to team manager Dr. Mohammed Moosajee was still recovering from a left hamstring strain.
Kyle Abbott was handed an ODI debut after a stunning test debut last month against Pakistan when he took man of the match honors with a nine-wicket haul.
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