At St. George's Park, though, Johnson appeared to be bowling on a different pitch for the best part of two days as he and the rest of the tourists' pace attack struggled to extract any pace, bounce or menace from an apparently slow and placid surface.
JP Duminy and De Villiers made centuries for the South Africans, and offspinner Lyon did much of the work for the Australians with his 5-130 after bowling 46 of their 150.5 overs.
Johnson and the seamers didn't take a wicket in more than 140 overs after their early two strikes on the first day, and he finished with 1-70 in the first innings.
Amid the South African quicks' early breakthroughs in the late afternoon, opener Warner raced to his half-century off just 55 balls and hit 10 fours by the close as the top order failed around him. Lyon, hanging on grimly and bravely, was 12 not out, but they both came through close shaves.
On 43, Warner edged a rising ball from Morkel high to De Villiers and the keeper fumbled it. Lyon edged down the legside to De Villiers at 107-4 and was given not out. The South Africans didn't review the decision, which showed a mark on Lyon's bat.
He then edged Morkel to Duminy at gully right at the end and another chance went down.
