Cape Town - The Proteas recovered from an early wobble to go into lunch at 75/1 on the opening day of the third Test against Australia at Newlands on Thursday. 

Having lost Aiden Markram (0) in the fourth over, Dean Elgar (40*) and Hashim Amla (31*) had shared an unbeaten stand of 69 for the second wicket by the time the first session came to an end. 

Having won the toss and elected to bat, Faf du Plessis announced two changes to the starting XI. 

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Temba Bavuma returned from a hand injury to replace Theunis de Bruyn in the middle order, while Morne Morkel came back into the side for Lungi Ngidi. 

Ngidi had been struggling with a toe injury in the week, and the decision to leave him out gave Morke the opportunity to become just the fifth South African in history to take 300 Test wickets. 

Morkel has announced that he will be retiring from international cricket at the end of the series, and if a fit-again Ngidi is backed for the fourth Test in Johannesburg, this will be Morkel's final opportunity to get to that milestone. 

The weather was perfect on the opening morning, and with the wicket looking significantly less green that it had on the opening morning of the Test against India back in January, South Africa's top order set out to occupy the crease for long periods. 

Things didn't start well for the hosts, and Markram was back in the hut for a duck when he nibbled at a length delivery just outside off stump from Josh Hazlewood. 

Steve Smith took a neat catch at second slip as the ball died on him, and the Proteas were in early trouble at 6/1. 

Smith had said in the week that he might look to bring off-spinner Nathan Lyon into the attack early, given Elgar's battles against him so far in the series. 

The Aussie skipper was true to his word, introducing Lyon in the 9th over and giving him a spell of four overs. 

Elgar, though, looked untroubled and together with Amla he set about the Proteas recovery. 

Amla started slowly, but began to find his feet after drinks with a couple of sumptuous drives off Pat Cummins.

By lunch, the recovery was well on its way with both Amla and Elgar well set.