Patient Ntini leads from the front

When Australian captain Ricky Ponting won the toss for the sixth consecutive time in the combined series, there was never any doubt that he would bat first on a perfect Cape Town day as captains have always done at this particular venue.

But, as stand-in Proteas' captain Jacques Kallis remarked, losing the toss at Newlands is not as big a disadvantage as it is at other grounds as this is a genuine five-day Test ground where deterioration in the surface is normally slow and moderate.

Nevertheless it was important that the Proteas applied early pressure with the ball and Ntini, playing in his 99th Test match was clearly the man for the job. He opened the bowling with Dale Steyn and conceded only six runs in his opening spell of seven overs.

Although the reward was not there for Ntini in person, the pressure built up from both ends in the best Proteas bowling performance of the series gave the home side control as Australia lost wickets at regular intervals to be 158/6 in the over after tea with left-arm spinner Paul Harris having figures of 3/10 at that stage.

From that position there was no comeback as the Proteas had their first decent opening day to a Test match in the home series. The Australians were dismissed for 209 and by the close Imraan Khan and Ashwell Prince had put together a significant unbeaten half-century opening partnership.

The significant feature of the day was that Australia kept on losing wickets in clumps which rather negated the stands of 58 for the first wicket between Phillip Hughes and Simon Katich and 71 for the fifth between Katich and Brad Haddin.

Hughes and Ponting, who failed to get off the mark and gave Albie Morkel a notable first wicket in Test cricket, fell in the space of eight balls.

Dale Steyn then came back for his quickest spell of the series after lunch with several deliveries being clocked in the region of 150km/h. The high point came when he bowled both Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke.

Then, just when the Katich-Haddin, partnership was getting going, Harris removed both in the space of 12 balls either side of the tea interval.

Extra pressure had been put on the Australian top order by the loss of a sick Marcus North which gave spinner Bryce McGain his first Test cap.

Ntini finally got his reward in his 16th over of typical endeavour when he had Andrew McDonald caught at first slip by Kallis and then got Peter Siddle two balls late, this time courtesy of AB de Villiers at second slip.

Thereafter Dale Steyn cleaned up the last two to finish with four in the innings.