Cape Town - The wickets on the highveld are generally run machines.
For this reason, combined with the fact that there was a bit of rain predicted in the evening, a few eyebrows were raised when Proteas captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bowl in Friday's opening ODI against Australia at Centurion.
That decision immediately began to look the wrong one as the Aussies got off to a cracking start, racing to 64 before David Warner was dismissed for 40 in the 10th over.
An Andile Phehlukwayo-inspired Proteas bowling attack gradually clawed their way back, and in the end they restricted Australia to 294/9 from their 50 overs.
That should still be enough to be competitive on any wicket, but what followed was a Quinton de Kock exhibition that saw him bash 178 from 113 balls.
In the end, the Proteas got home at a canter.
But, speaking after the game, De Kock acknowledged that it could have been a very different game had the toss not gone Du Plessis's way.
"The wicket did help a lot and it became extremely good to bat on," De Kock said.
"It was two different wickets from the afternoon to the evening ... we were just lucky to win the toss, I guess.
"If we had to bowl second it could have also gone their way ... they have some devastating batsmen that could have gone away with the game today."
Du Plessis is currently standing in for injured ODI captain AB de Villiers.
The second ODI takes place at the Wanderers on Sunday.