Head’s blazing knock swings bowler-dominated day

It brought 15 wickets and almost 300 runs on a tough Gabba pitch, but round one of the NRMA Insurance Test battle between Australia and South Africa rests marginally in the former's favour thanks to some bold final session batting.

After South Africa were knocked over for 152 on the stroke of tea, Australia found themselves in the same strife as their rivals had endured at day's beginning before Travis Head's blazing unbeaten 78 and partnership with Steve Smith (36) took them to 5-145 at stumps.

It would have been a more emphatic advantage to the hosts had Smith and night watch Scott Boland not lost their wickets in the final two overs as Proteas quick Anrich Nortje pushed above 150kph.

What was billed as a showdown between two high-quality bowling outfits proved precisely that but – as shrewd judges had predicted pre-game – it has been Australia's batting superiority that made the difference on day one.

On a day as wildly fluctuating as it was utterly absorbing, both teams traded heavyweight blows through their artilleries of hefty pace men before Australia emerged ascendant on points thanks to the exhilarating stand between Smith and Head.

Coming together at 3-27 and in the same dire state South Africa had plumbed in the opening hour, the pair weathered the storm of regular haymakers before landing a flurry of their own in the final hour as their partnership yielded 117 from 138 balls before Smith's had his stumps rattled.

Head revived memories of his game-changing hundred in the final session of day two at last year's Ashes encounter at the same venue, reaching 50 from 48 balls faced courtesy of an effortless flick over backward square leg for six.

Today's knock also continues a rich of first innings scores in recent weeks, with the left-hander peeling off 99 (off 95 balls) against West Indies at Perth followed by 175 (off 219) against the same opponent at his home ground in Adelaide a week later.

Mitchell Starc will also begin Australia's next bowling innings – which at the current rate this game is unfolding could be midway through tomorrow – needing just one wicket to reach 300 in Tests having claimed 3-41 in South Africa's total of 152.

He might already be the seventh Australia member of that esteemed group (alongside Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Nathan Lyon, Dennis Lillee, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee) had Head clung on to a reflex chance at short leg off Kagiso Rabada.

It meant Starc and Nathan Lyon both finished with three wickets on a pitch that was expected to offer every assistance to fast bowlers, with the spinner's 3-14 off eight overs his second-best first innings return in a Gabba Test after taking 4-69 in his first outing at the ground against New Zealand in 2011.

But as much as the level of spin and bounce Lyon extracted from the day one surface was eye-opening, it was the duelling pace attacks that set tongues wagging.

The anticipation surrounding South Africa's trio of intimidating quicks – Rabada, Jansen and Nortje – proved well founded and worth the wait when all three of them struck immediately upon taking the ball.

Rabada's removal of David Warner with the opening delivery of Australia's innings was perhaps the most brutally effective early blow landed by a South African since Elon Musk's recent takeover of Twitter.

As menacing as the ball fired at Warner's right shoulder proved, and as spectacular as the one-handed grab above his head by Khaya Zondo at short leg surely was, it was the sum total of those complementary acts that equated to a greater talking point.

Warner's second golden duck of a gilded Test career – the first coming against Sri Lanka at the SCG a decade ago, extended the 36-year-old's run of knocks without a half-century to nine stretching back to Australia's tour of Pakistan earlier this year when he posted 51 at Rawalpindi.

And while it's remarkable for a Test opener approaching his 100th appearance to only twice be dismissed first ball across his entire tenure, the three-year drought between centuries is starting to indicate more than a mere lean patch.

Not that Warner was alone in feeling the fast-bowling fury of a South Africa line-up clearly stung by their shortcomings with bat in hand.

Fresh from averaging a lazy 167 across two NRMA Insurance Tests against the West Indies, and with proud family members watching from the stands as he tackled the nation of his birth for the first time at the elite level, Marnus Labuschagne crammed a lot into his 38-minute stay.

The world's top-ranked Test batter edged agonisingly short of the slips before surviving a reviewed lbw shout off Lungi Ngidi that was shown to be bouncing over the stumps before the first bowling change of Australia's innings brought him undone.

Left-armer Jansen's first Test delivery on Australia soil skidded on to, and angled across the right-handed batter, found the edge of a bat that had proved so broad in previous weeks and flew sharply to second slip.

With South Africa snaring two wickets in as many balls sent down by their primary pace pair, it only heightened the curiosity of skipper Dean Elgar's call to open with Ngidi alongside Rabada given he rarely pushed much beyond 130kph.

That decision seemed even more questionable when Ngidi was replaced by Nortje, the team's fastest bowler, who sharpened up the normally unflappable Usman Khawaja and had him caught at third slip from his second delivery.

That ball was clocked at a touch above 142kph, and came after his opening offering that sailed through at just 138kph before Nortje found his rhythm and reduced Australia to 3-27.

It was the worst start to a Test innings by any team at the Gabba since South Africa slumped to the same scoreline barely four hours earlier.

Proteas skipper Elgar revealed at this morning's coin toss he likely would have batted if afforded the option so he couldn't even claim circumstantial mitigation for his team's dire start.

Within an hour of play starting under often thick cloud, and on a surface decked out in festive season green, the visitors plunged to 3-27 having been sent in.

A minute after the first drinks break it was 4-27, when Zondo – perhaps the most surprising Proteas' inclusion ahead of Theunis de Bruyn – was pinned lbw by Boland who embarked on another multi-wicket over.

It represented the most dramatic opening session seen at the Gabba since the 1978-79 Ashes when an Australia outfit revamped by World Series Cricket crashed to 4-22.

Not that the day one pitch was misbehaving like a toddler overdosed on pre-Christmas hype.

Indeed, the grassy strip was proving just as problematic to fast bowlers who struggled to find sure footing just as South Africa's top-order were battling to keep their feet when running between wickets, and keep their wickets while trying to find runs.

Elgar – the only player in that top six to average north of 35 in Test matches – began the procession when he edged behind in Starc's third over and number three Rassie van der Dussen followed in similar fashion off Pat Cummins five overs later.

The introduction of Boland brought the kind of immediate results Australia fans have come to expect of the reluctant cult figure.

The fourth delivery of his second over brought the scalp of Elgar's opening partner Sarel Erwee who sliced a low catch to gully where Cameron Green has established himself as cricket's version of a black hole, with doubts that even time could escape his gravitational field.

The final ball of that over accounted for Zondo whose modest record in his previous two Tests – average of 19.5 with a highest score of 23 – now becomes even less compelling after a second-ball duck that was confirmed after he belatedly reviewed the lbw call.

But with the tourists staring at potentially the lowest first-innings total at the Gabba since the West Indies were dismantled for 82, Australia's bowlers eased their choke hold and their fielders failed to grasp a couple of opportunities.

Green's arrival at the slippery bowling crease saw the scoring spike, with Verreynne helping himself to a boundary over square leg and then a six carved backward of point with Australia's all-rounder unable to hit his length.

Verreynne's union with Temba Bavuma began skittishly, with a mix-up before either had scored seeing the former stranded mid-pitch with Green's low throw eluding Head who had taken the stumps at the striker's end.

Head had another chance to remove the South Africa keeper when Verreynne had reached 20 when he set off for a single but lost his feet mid-pitch in trying to change direction, and a direct hit would have rendered the Proteas 5-61.

However, the pair survived the remainder of the opening session and continued after the break as Verreynne reached an impressive half-century with an authoritative pull for four off Cummins by which time the total had passed 100.

It was Starc's preparedness to pitch the ball full that brought the breakthrough, with assistance from the inside edge of Bavuma's bat that saw the ball slam into the top of middle and leg stumps.

That triggered the innings' second collapse when, after 98 runs were added for the fifth wicket, the final six fell for addition of just 27 runs in less than 14 overs.

Lyon snared three of those, and perhaps the most important when he claimed Verreynne with the 'slider' delivery he's been working on and deployed with great effect in the current Test summer to date.

Its potency was heightened by the ball Lyon sent down at the start of the 42nd over that seemed to take a chunk out of the pitch as it bit and spun sharply away from the left-hander and past bemused keeper Alex Carey.

Five balls later, Lyon pushed through the flatter side-spinning version that caught Verreynne on the crease playing for turn that didn't eventuate, and Smith held his 52nd catch off Australia's most successful finger spinner.

Lyon and Starc scythed through the bottom half of South Africa's batting before Cummins mopped up with the wicket of Ngidi, with the view their total of 152 was perhaps 70 or so runs below par lingering for barely half an hour into Australia's reply.

Men's NRMA Insurance Test Series v South Africa

Dec 17-21: First Test, Gabba, 11.20am AEDT

Dec 26-30: Second Test, MCG, 10.30am AEDT

Jan 4-8: Third Test, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Lance Morris, Nathan Lyon, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner

South Africa squad: Dean Elgar (c), Temba Bavuma, Gerald Coetzee, Theunis de Bruyn, Sarel Eree, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Heinrich Klaasen, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams, Khaya Zondo

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