Shane Warne believes the wicket for the second Test against South Africa starting in Durban on Friday is likely to favour seam and swing bowling, which could play into Australia's hands for a series-clinching victory.

Test cricket's leading wicket-taker picked up three scalps in Australia's seven-wicket win in the first Test in Cape Town last week on a controversial pitch that continued to assist the seam bowlers throughout the three days of play.

Australia's in-form pace trio of Brett Lee, Michael Kasprowicz and man-of-the-match Stuart Clark dominated and Warne sees no reason why it can't happen again at the Kingsmead ground in Durban.

"You can get a bit of a feel for it. It's a got a lot of thick green grass on it but it's a little bit hard," Warne said.

"It looks like a typical Durban pitch. It's going to swing around.

"The overhead conditions are quite similar to Queensland here - it's humid, it's quite muggy, which means the ball swings.

"And there's a lot of grass on the wicket. It looks like the seamers going to play a big part again like they did in the first Test.

"We all knew we were going to miss Glenn McGrath (who is unavailable for this series for family reasons), but for Stuart Clark to come out and take 9-89 on debut was an outstanding achievement.

"These conditions look like they might suit him as well."

The match starts at 1000 local time (1900 AEDT).

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP