Adelaide Test, Day 1, Lunch
Friday, December 14, 2001

It was a big toss to win, a very big toss for Steve Waugh, given the importance of this series, with the World Championship at stake, and the pitch.

I was quite surprised that the South Africans were pretty tense before the start this morning. They're taking this tour very seriously, and I think that showed with the way they bowled early on. They didn't appear to have any real plan, and struggled to get a consistent line and length - and Langer and Hayden both took advantage of that.

I think the wicket will be the real factor in this Test. It's pretty dry in patches but there are some green spots, and we've seen early on there's already a bit of variation in bounce - although, interestingly, one end seems to be quite different from the other. It's a huge bonus to bat first, because a lot of those dry spots will loosen up, probably as early as the third day.

You could see with Ntini's bowling that there wasn't much room for error ... but it was really Kallis who turned things around for South Africa. He was able to reign Langer and Hayden in a bit, because they were flying at one stage, and I think that calmed the whole team down.

There's been a lot of talk about the MacGill factor, but I'm absolutely convinced Australia made the right decision in not playing both him and Warne. It'll be a lot tougher facing line-and-length pace bowling, with the variation in bounce, than MacGill ... he'll give you one an over to hit, whereas Warnie is a pretty good defensive bowler.

I'm also pleased the South Africans picked Claude Henderson, their left-arm spinner. It gives them a bit of variety, particularly without Donald. That really hurts them, not having him, because he's such a great bowler. They've told me the problem is he's just not match-fit yet but he'll be there in Melbourne for sure.

It was clearly Australia's session early on but it's a bit tighter now ... the South Africans have slowed the run rate, picked up Hayden and should have had Ponting. The one thing about this South African team is they will bounce back time and time again, and they can quickly put a bad session behind them.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia. His comments will be appearing on Wisden.com at the end of every session in the series. He was talking to Tim Stoney.

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