South Africa's batting woes continue as Green makes his mark

Melbourne: Riding a wave of emotion provided by a festive crowd at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Cameron Green claimed the best bowling figures of his Test career as Australia bowled South Africa out for 189 on the opening day of the second Test.

Pace bowler Green (5-27) gave the enthusiastic fans something to cheer about by triggering a late-order collapse of five wickets for 10 runs as the 23-year-old claimed his first five-wicket haul in Tests on Monday.

Leading the three-match series one-nil, Australia reached 45-1 at stumps before a crowd of 64,876.

David Warner was unbeaten on 32 with Marnus Labuschagne on five, leaving the home side 144 runs behind with nine wickets in hand, after Usman Khawaja fell caught behind for one to Kagiso Rabada.

Choosing to bowl first, Australia was on top shortly after lunch with South Africa struggling at 67-5 before Kyle Verreynne (52) and Marco Jansen (59) added 112 for the sixth wicket.

It was South Africa's seventh consecutive test total under 200.

"But I felt like today was probably the first time in the last couple of games that we have sort of had more soft dismissals than not, and that's probably the more disappointing thing," Verreynne said.

Verreynne said South Africa's tailenders should not be blamed for the touring team's lower-order collapse, losing five wickets for 10 runs. "The conversations are more based on the top six and making sure that we have enough runs on the board," he said.