It was a game plan that proved quite successful for Australia in the Ashes: hit the spinner out of the attack then plunder the overworked quicks.
It wasn’t exactly a secret ploy in the Australian summer, and David Warner made sure South Africa knew about it last week when he vowed Australia would go after tweaker Robin Peterson.
The Proteas made plans to counter, but the first battle of the three-Test series played out exactly as Warner intimated.
Spearhead Dale Steyn and beanpole Morne Morkel had dried up the runs early in the second session on a bouncy Centurion deck when Graeme Smith threw the ball to Peterson.
Shaun Marsh and Steve Smith, in the embryonic stages of their impressive fifth-wicket stand, danced down the wicket with ease and grabbed 22 runs from four Peterson overs before Smith withdrew the left-arm finger spinner from the attack.
When Smith next employed a tweaker, it was the 63rd over and he preferred the gentle offspin of JP Duminy.
Neither spinner threatened, while Steyn, Morkel and Vernon Philander all looked exhausted after toiling in a fashion they very rarely have to.
“I think he got a bit tired towards the end of the day,” Smith said of Steyn, who was ill.
“When that second new ball came he probably bowled a bit wide to me and I didn’t have to play at too many balls.
“He’s obviously a quality bowler … (Australia must) capitalise on all the other bowlers.”
The absence of retired legend Jacques Kallis was sorely felt by the Proteas, with allrounder Ryan McLaren not as threatening nor restrictive in his second Test.
“I’m going to have to do the hard yards when the wicket is starting to flatten out and there’s maybe not that sideways movement,” McLaren said.
“It’s my job to lock one end up to make sure Dale, Morne and Vernon are fresh, so they can take on other spells.
“It’s something that I have to learn as quickly as possible. But for a start I was happy.”
Australia were particularly productive in the final session on day one, scoring 121 runs, but 24-year-old Smith said this was not premeditated.
“You’re just going to have to be patient (while batting),” Smith said.
“Because they do get impatient at times.”