After the coin fell in his favour, South African skipper Graeme Smith pushed his chips to the middle of the table on the opening day of the series and put the tourists in to bat. His gamble did not pay off.
When asked at the toss what he would have done had he won it, Michael Clarke said he would have batted as he felt the pitch would offer the quicks something in the first session but would flatten out after that.
In essence, right from ball one there was not a lot of life in the Centurion strip and by the time the 19th over had come around Smith had already introduced his specialist spinner Robin Peterson, his fifth bowler to that point of the innings.
South Africa had its moments early on, with Australia losing both openers to be 2-24 and when Clarke fell for 23 it was 4-98.
It was soon however a case of déjà vu as, just like the Ashes, Australia’s opponent could not land the knockout blow.
Shaun Marsh (122no) and Steve Smith (91no) combined for an unbroken 199-run stand to have the tourists in command at stumps on 4-297.
That performance was well above par given the average opening day total at Centurion is 7-251.
The average first innings at the ground is 304 and Australia will sail well past that.
However the surface is anything but the traditional Centurion deck.
There was a distinct lack of bounce early on and that does not augur well for South Africa, who are likely to bat last.
Smith’s decision to send Australia in was no doubt predicated on the side’s dramatic first innings collapses in several of the Ashes Tests earlier this summer.
He took the risk despite his preeminent strike bowler, Dale Steyn, having awoken with a stomach upset.
In the end, three of the four wickets were largely gifted to the Proteas – David Warner (23) bowled off an inside edge cutting at a ball not wide enough from Steyn; debutant Alex Doolan (27) caught at mid-wicket on the pull shot off Ryan McLaren; and Clarke falling at fine leg off Steyn.
Chris Rogers (4) fell to some heady bowling from Morne Morkel, who struck Rogers on the upper body before getting a well-directed snorter in the same over that he parried to a diving J P Duminy at short leg.
When asked at the toss about the Australian line-up for the opening encounter, Clarke confirmed Doolan’s debut and then said “obviously Shaun Marsh” – an emphatic comment that proved to be salient.
Marsh had his detractors when initially selected in the touring party – I was certainly one of them – but he justified the faith shown in him by the selectors, and then some!
The big surprise was the fact he came in at number four, with the skipper moving back to his more familiar number five.
It seemed a strange decision as it left a man on debut at three and next in a batsman who had virtually no red ball form over the past three years.
It almost appeared as if Australia was somewhat conceding that the likes of Steyn, Morkel and Vernon Philander would be potent early and holding Clarke back was the wise thing to do.
In the end Clarke arrived in the middle at 3-72, 13 minutes prior to lunch.
His record against the Proteas is imperious – an average of 70.3 from 12 Tests with four centuries – hence the exuberant celebration from Steyn when he claimed the Aussie skipper cheaply.
In true Brett Lee style, he ripped the chord of the chainsaw four times while yelling at the top of his voice.
But it remained the last joy for the hosts on the opening day as they went wicketless over the next 56 overs.
Marsh struck the ball with great fluency, especially through the extra cover and mid-off region, while Smith was his usual busy self.
In the final session the pace attack looked tired and lacklustre, perhaps amplified by the fact they had played no first-class cricket for a month while they too gave way to their domestic T20 competition.
Having seen off eight overs of the second new ball through until stumps, the tourists will start the second day in a commanding position.
The world number one team needs to strike rapidly and often in the morning session or it will find itself playing catch-up for the remainder of the match.
Australia comprehensively won the opening day.
Time will tell whether they can also win the match.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Which means he hasn't actually proved you wrong until he manages to back it up and not go back to scoring single digits for the next year.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
In good Davey "2nd Innings" Warner style, he'll probably now come out and score a hundred in the second innings.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I can imagine Smith might not have really wanted to face Johnson on a seaming, bouncing pitch on the first morning of the test. He's already broken his hand twice. No matter how tough he is, I'm sure that's always in the back of his mind. Doing it once is one thing, but doing it twice has to get into your head in some way.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Many people thought Johnson might pull off something at the Gabba but could never continue it through a whole Ashes series. So his performance at the Gabba wasn't enough to silence that thought, he had to continue it and he did it seriously well, in fact, bowling even better on an Adelaide Oval pitch that offered him a lot less. Marsh has had his Gabba experience, but what he needs to do now is show that he's not just a one-off like he has always been in the past. Johnson has actually shown consistency in the past, he won the ICC Cricketer of the Year a few years back, so clearly he did well over an extended period of time. Marsh has never done well over an extended period of time against the red ball in his career, so it would be really breaking new ground to do that. But he really needs to show he is capable of doing that now. With Marsh, I'm not willing to say the selectors are good as much as they just got lucky in this case. He's shown he can pull out one-off innings, and he did that the first match after they brought him in completely against all empirical evidence. To this point they've got lucky, if he somehow manages to turn his entire career around and start scoring consistent runs, only then will I concede that it's possible the selectors saw something different about him that they believed made this possible, rather than them just getting lucky with this innings.
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Didn't look so bland when Johnson got a chance to bowl on it.
Mark
Guest
Exactly
Nudge
Guest
Far out great stats SS. Clarke must stay at 5
Zubes
Guest
Why is the pitch so bland. Do SA fear Aussie bowlers so much?
jammel
Guest
Quality performance - Marsh was sensational and Smith too! As much as I like Clarke at #4 - and think he should bat there in this series - it is hard to fault Lehmann and Clarke sending in Shaun Marsh at four! Really hope we can push on to, say, 420-430 this morning!
Adsa
Guest
How can snorkel be bowling this soon?
ozinsa
Guest
Why is Clarke batting at the spot where he averages 30 more than any other considered "hiding"? He's a great player of spin (our best) and Marsh is more comfortable in the top order. I have been plugging this change for weeks and am very pleased it has come about. It was wrong to move him to four and fixing it is right.
Sandy
Guest
I know that feeling, good isn't it :)
Simoc
Guest
Well it's the Roar crowd that can't fathom cricket. These experts sit at home in front of a computer and TV and know everything while the true follower pays to watch their heroes and be entertained. And "what a surprise" they like T20. Who woulda thought.
Bluebag
Guest
Today's go must be two sessions of grind and plunder with the bat and then get into the Saffers with some class length pace bowling (and the occasional bit of chin music) to snare a few wickets in the last session.
Simoc
Guest
Chris B it's called ability. Khawaja like Hughes isn't good enough against the best bowlers but against the rest can do what he likes. But hopefully they'll get there as Smith has. Shaun Marsh has it all except confidence (like Johnson previously) and is injury prone. Again it proves how good our selectors are and how little Roar experts know about cricket.
AlanKC
Guest
It's a developing team because, until the Ashes just gone, they'd been flogged by just about everyone, a coach had been sacked days before a series and the majority of supporters were claiming the death of Australian cricket... They've won one series after all of that and you're suggesting they're settled?
Deccas
Guest
nothing is better than that. Except maybe "f of,f onya bike ya mongrel, the dressing room is that way!"
Deccas
Guest
its not like marsh is some inexperienced player though. He is 31 with nigh on 100 first class matches to his name, and a previous stint at 3 in the Australian team. Given Doolans age and experience you would hope he can debut in the top order fine as well. Its a different than two or three years ago when Khawaja in his early 20s and others were debuting at number 3 while ponting clarke and hussey hid down the order.
Statistic Skeptic
Guest
Border's record: 36 innings at No 3 for an average of 47.09 88 innings at No 4 for an average of 50.44 70 innings at No 5 for an average of 52.05 63 innings at No 6 for an average of 52.16 Fair to say that Border batted pretty well at any point in the order from first drop to No 6. Steve Waugh: 142 innings at No 5 for an average of 56.28 79 innings at No 6 for an average of 51.04 Again - equally good in either position. Clarke: 46 innings at No 4 for average of 28.43 103 innings at No 5 for average of 63.6 21 innings at No 6 for average of 48.76 For Clarke there actually seems to be a pretty good reason to leave him at number 5.
Gordon smith
Guest
More meaningless stats. Marsh - 12 innings 4 ducks and 2 hundreds. Watson 95 innings 5 ducks and 4 hundreds.