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Jon Healy and Simon Smale at the Gabba

Australia wins first Test against South Africa inside two days at the Gabba

Australia has beaten South Africa inside two days in a remarkable opening Test of their three-match series at the Gabba in Brisbane.

Having bowled South Africa out for 99 in their second innings after Pat Cummins took 5-42, Australia knocked off the 34 runs required for victory off just eight overs but it came at the cost of four wickets.

The small chase still left enough time for Australia to lose openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith and Travis Head, with South Africa's wayward bouncers contributing 19 runs to the chase to comfortably out-score any Australian batter.

The series opener is also just the second two-day Test to take place in Australia, after a victory over West Indies in 1931, and the second-shortest by balls on these shores, after the fifth Test against the South Africans at the MCG in 1932.

The next game is the Boxing Day Test at the MCG, which last year failed to make it to lunch on day three, as Australia dismissed England for 68 to win by an innings and 14 runs.

While the Australian bowlers should be applauded for their superb lines and lengths throughout the two days' play, the Gabba pitch certainly played its role in the carnage.

Only two batters scored more than 38 in the match — Head with 92 for Australia and Kyle Verreynne with 64 for South Africa in their respective first innings.

Scott Boland, who finished with 4-42 in the match, was asked if the match was a fair contest between bat and ball.

"Thirty-four wickets in two days; probably not," he told ABC Sport.

South Africa captain Dean Elgar said the pitch was "pretty spicy" and, while he did not mind a challenging pitch, the Brisbane deck was perhaps weighted too far in one direction.

"I don't see it as a fair contest, really," he said in the post-match presentation. 

Spinner Nathan Lyon said while the pitch had plenty to do with the quick result, the two bowling attacks in the series were rightly considered the best in the world.

"The wicket, everybody's probably saying it's too much [in the bowlers' favour], but it just shows the quality of bowlers running around out here," he told Fox. 

But the Gabba greentop will no doubt come under scrutiny from the International Cricket Council, which passes judgement and gives grades to every Test wicket.

Head falls short, but Aussie bowlers take advantage

Despite skittling South Africa for 152 on day one, Australia only took a 66-run lead out of the first innings after losing their last five wickets for just 73 runs in the first session of day two.

Resuming on 5-148 at the start of play, Green played stylishly and confidently to reach 18 before he nicked off, caught by first slip Erwee after Maharaj could only parry at third.

Head added 14 to his overnight score before Jansen extracted a faint touch off his glove to be caught by Verreynne.

Alex Carey and Starc added 21 for the eighth wicket before Starc (14) was caught and bowled by Ngidi, while Cummins was caught out off a mistimed pull shot.

Lyon was also dismissed without scoring, to set up an awkward 20-minute period before lunch for South Africa's openers to survive, and only one made it through.

Captain Dean Elgar fell to his Australian counterpart, Pat Cummins, in the second over, and first drop Rassie van der Dussen became Mitchell Starc's 300th Test victim when the prolific left-armer swung a ball through his gate and into the stumps seven balls later.

Reeling at 2-3 at the lunch break, it only got worse after the resumption, when opener Sarel Erwee was caught brilliantly by Cameron Green for 3, leaving South Africa 3-5 in the eighth over.

Just as he did in the first dig, Temba Bavuma showed impressive resistance in the face of brilliant bowling and was joined this time by Khaya Zondo in his third Test, as they added just 42 runs, but more importantly made it through 16 overs for the fourth wicket.

It all came crashing down once again when they lost three wickets in six balls, with Bavuma (29) LBW to Nathan Lyon, and Kyle Verreynne and Marco Jansen both falling victim to another double-wicket over from Scott Boland — the fifth time he has taken multiple poles in an over in Test cricket.

Keshav Maharaj became Starc's 301st Test wicket when he nicked off four overs later, and while Zondo and Kagiso Rabada took South Africa to 66 at tea to force Australia to bat again, South Africa's tail could not do much more than that.

Rabada (3) edged to Carey off the bowling of Cummins, who then had Nortje out the very next ball to Green. 

An over from Mitchell Starc split the possible hat-trick ball, which Zondo swished away to fine leg.

Zondo declined singles wherever possible to try and milk as many runs as possible from South Africa's carcass of an innings.

And he played some shots, throwing his hands at Cummins and Starc indiscriminately, subscribing to the school that Head and Verreynne did in their first innings that playing positively was the way to go.

But Ngidi fell to a vicious Cummins bouncer for 9, leaving Zondo stranded on 36 and South Africa all out for 99.

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