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A disciplined bowling performance saw Australia take day one honours at Port Elizabeth yesterday, containing South Africa to 5-214 on a lifeless pitch.
The Aussies were forced to work hard for their wickets on a deck which offered nothing to the quicks or the spinners, making life easy for the Proteas’ batsmen.
Australia have the second new ball available to take at the start of tomorrow’s play, giving them an opportunity to get into South Africa’s tail in the first session.
On a pitch which suggests a score of around 360-370 would be par, Australia are a strong chance of holding the Proteas’ to a substandard total.
Debate of the day: Have the Aussies already broken South African skipper Graeme Smith?
The hardnosed men from down under crushed England skipper Alastair Cook over the course of the back-to-back Ashes series, disintegrating first his form and later his team.
Smith in between Tests was at pains to claim he and his side were not concerned by the marauding Mitch Johnson after his 12 wickets in Australia’s thumping win at Centurion.
The veteran Proteas batsman had twice been embarrassed by the Australian spearhead in that match.
Johnson emasculated him in the first dig with a vicious short ball which Smith desperately fended away from in front of his skull.
After being physically overpowered he was then out thought by his opponents in the second innings when he fell into the most obvious of traps.
The man known as “Biff” among his team mates clipped the ball off his pads straight to Alex Doolan who had been positioned at short backward square for just that shot.
The disbelieving look on Smith’s face suggested he had been unlucky.
But he surely later will have realised the folly of playing such a stroke.
Smith, who slammed the Australia’s confident talk in the media pre-series, went on his own offensive in the press this week claiming his side would learn from their mistakes.
It was not so for Smith.
He was, yet again, comprehensively out thought by his more cerebral counterpart Michael Clarke.
When the Proteas’ skipper took strike to Ryan Harris yesterday he spied two men in catching positions at mid wicket flanked by a straight mid on.
Once again, a trap had been set.
Once again, Smith waddled right into it.
Upon receiving a Ryan Harris delivery bound for off stump Smith did exactly as the bowler and Clarke hoped, closing the face of his blade in an attempt to deflect it square of those fielders.
Not surprisingly, this risky technique failed and he was caught dead in front.
Smith likes to lead by example.
So far he has survived just 37 balls over his three innings.
The Aussies have got under his skin and inside his head.
Can he avoided being completely cooked and, if not, can this South African side still find a way to fight back into this series?
Key performer: Even after his wonderful Ashes series, Nathan Lyon still had scores of doubters
He didn’t have enough variety, some claimed.
He was getting cheap wickets because batsmen were scared to face Mitch Johnson, others blustered.
He would be found out in South Africa, yet more chirped.
Yesterday, Lyon presented understated yet resounding evidence of his maturation into a world-class Test spinner.
He encountered challenging circumstances.
The first day Port Elizabeth pitch offered him little in the way of encouragement.
Australia’s quicks were not making the frequent breakthroughs which had become so commonplace in recent times.
The Proteas’ batsmen, Smith and Hashim Amla aside, were showcasing levels of determination and resilience hereto unseen.
AB de Villiers, the best batsman in the world, was in no mood to be contained by a slow bowler.
Yet, despite all these obstacles, Lyon emerged as a key player once again.
First he was rewarded for his unerring patience when he got a delivery to bite, turn and catch the inside edge of Faf du Plessis’ blade, lobbing to Steve Smith at short leg.
Du Plessis had looked set to construct one of his trademark marathon innings.
Lyon then utilised his deceptive flight to repeatedly beat de Villiers whenever South Africa’s kingpin attempted to skip down the wicket.
It was through similar deception that he earned the crucial wicket of opener Dean Elgar, who had resembled an immovable object for almost five hours.
These breakthroughs continued the pattern Lyon created in the Ashes of dislodging batsmen at critical moments.
Test spinners typically earn their keep in the second innings as the pitch breaks up.
Boasting a tweaker who can influence a match from day one is something to which every side aspires.
Australia have just that.
Lyon is quickly becoming a star.