Stuart Clark, Brett Lee and Michael Kasprowicz moved the ball menacingly off the seam and shared the wickets.

Lee who produced an absolute beauty to bowl Jacques Kallis, captaining the home side for the first time, for 37.

Herschelle Gibbs (16) paid the price for a glaring misjudgement, offering no shot to a straight one from Kasprowicz.

South Africa went into the game without regular skipper Graeme Smith, who will be out of action for 10 to 12 days after injuring a finger in practice.

It meant a return to opening the batting for Gibbs with Boeta Dippenaar, a regular in the one-day side, making his first Test appearance for 10 months.

Batsman Justin Langer won his 100th Test cap in an unchanged Australia line-up as they began their bid for a series clean sweep.

Kallis opted to bat first after winning the toss but it was hard going for de Villiers and Gibbs against the new ball.

They managed to stay together until the 14th over until Clark tempted de Villiers into a loose shot on 12 and Damien Martyn took a good catch diving forward.

Gibbs only lasted a further three overs before he inexplicably shouldered arms to a ball from Kasprowicz which hit middle and off.

Dippenaar was in aggressive mood, hitting seven fours in his 32 as he and Kallis steadied the innings with a stand of 59.

But he was then caught behind attempting to drive a wide one from Clark and Kallis followed as a superb off-cutter from Lee found a narrow gap between bat and pad.

Australia then turned to Shane Warne and he also found the pitch to his liking, extracting considerable turn for both his leg-breaks and googlies.

It was a question of survival for Ashwell Prince and Jacques Rudolph but the two left-handers clung on to reach tea on 23 and 12 respectively.