Spinners Nathan Lyon and Robin Peterson are content to fly under the speed radar in the three-Test series.
The contest between South Africa and Australia, which starts in Centurion on Wednesday, has been built up as the battle of the best two pace attacks in the world.
Aside from David Warner’s broadside, neither of the spinners have featured prominently in promotion and press for the highly-anticipated series.
That’s exactly the way they want it.
“I’m sure Nathan Lyon and myself would like to go unnoticed in picking up our two or three wickets every innings if we can,” Peterson said on Sunday.
Lyon could only agree.
“I’m more than happy to fly under the radar,” he said last week.
Fast bowlers from both sides have been sticking out their chest for the past month, or having their pace prowess proclaimed by coaches and captains.
But for Lyon and Peterson there is nothing but a sense of mutual admiration, the sort of reverence that is so rarely sighted in the modern-day version of the gentlemen’s game.
“I’ve always admired Nathan Lyon as a bowler,” said Peterson, who made his Test debut in 2003 when Lyon was 15 years old.
“He’s played fantastically for Australia for a long time now.
“Maybe the Ashes series in England would have been a little bit different if they’d picked him in the first two Tests.
“He’s a world-class bowler.
“Sometimes guys who do that role get underestimated, and when they’re underestimated is when they’re at their most dangerous.”
Lyon, speaking prior to Peterson, sang from a spookily similar song sheet.
“Robin Peterson is a world-class spinner, he said in Johannesburg.
“We’re not going to underestimate him.”
Lyon claimed his 100th Test wicket en route to 19 scalps in the recent Ashes series.
Peterson has missed two games since returning to South Africa’s Test team in December 2012, when he took six wickets to help the visitors win the series.