Lawry's men left directly for South Africa. Already tired, they confronted fast and bouncy pitches in contrast to low, slow and dusty spinning pitches in India. Upon arrival, Lawry declared Ian Chappell to be the best batsman in the world, something that would come back to haunt him. For his part, the Australian commentator Alan McGilvray said that when they arrived in Johannesburg, the Australians "looked haggard. Their eyes seemed to be standing out of their heads and some of them looked positively yellow." The Australians played their first match of the tour within a week of leaving the subcontinent. Prior to this first match, most of the team were seen sleeping on the benches at the ground half an hour before play was due to start. Initially, it appeared that the Australians were unaffected by the long campaign and change in conditions; they won their first two lead-in matches against their provincial sides by an innings and ten wickets respectively, Lawry scoring 86 against North Eastern Transvaal and 157 against Griqualand West, finishing unbeaten on both occasions. They drew the third match against Eastern Province, Lawry again unbeaten twice on 9 and 43.