David Warner, Quinton de Kock front and centre as Australia bat

PORT ELIZABETH: Australia won the toss and decided to bat in the second Test against South Africa at St George’s Park on Friday as attention focused on warring duo David Warner and Quinton de Kock.

Both players were fined after their ugly bust-up in the first Test in Durban and the two teams have been warned by the match referee to keep their tempers in check.

Warner was due to open the batting for Australia, who won the opening Test by 118 runs, while wicketkeeper de Kock will take his place behind the stumps.

Light drizzle delayed the toss by ten minutes but play was due to start on time.

The covers were taken off shortly before the toss and revealed a pitch with a good covering of grass.

Australian captain Steve Smith said that his batsmen would need to bat through a tricky early period. 

"If we can get through that we can hopefully put a big total on the board. We expect reverse swing and spin to play a role later on," he said.

South African captain Faf du Plessis said he had been undecided about what to do if he won the toss. 

"I think it (the ball) will move around a bit. The weather forecast says it isn’t going to get too hot and I don’t expect the pitch will deteriorate much."

South Africa dropped veteran fast bowler Morne Morkel and replaced him with Lungi Ngidi. 

"We’ve picked Ngidi specifically for these conditions," said Du Plessis.

Teams:

South Africa: Faf du Plessis (captain), Dean Elgar, Aiden Markram, Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Theunis de Bruyn, Vernon Philander, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.

Australia: Steve Smith (captain), David Warner, Cameron Bancroft, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (wkt), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood.

Umpires: Chris Gaffaney (NZL), Kumar Dharmasena (SRI)

TV umpire: Sunderam Ravi (IND)

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)