Temba Bavuma insists South Africa is capable of bouncing back after Australia dominated the opening day of the first Test at the WACA.
Bavuma compiled 51 and shared in restorative stands with skipper Faf du Plessis (37) and top-scorer Quinton de Kock (84) as the Proteas recovered from 32-4 to reach 242 all out on Thursday.
However, the touring team's total was soon put into context as David Warner raced to 73 from 62 balls and received able support from Shaun Marsh in an unbroken opening partnership of 105 from 21 overs.
Addressing reporters after the close of play, Bavuma said: "What's happened today has happened; we can't do anything to change it. I think our performance in the first session tomorrow [Friday] will give us an opportunity to pull things back.
"It's quite obvious that Australia have the upper hand at the moment, but the game is definitely far from over.
"From a batting point of view, the second innings will give us an opportunity to knuckle down. The wicket still seems quite true, so I think there's an opportunity there for the batters to dig in.
"It's only one day of cricket that we've played badly. There's still a lot of confidence among the guys in the team. We take comfort in the fact that we have the skill, we've got the experience to come back stronger and that's what we're going to be focusing on."
Warner was given a let-off on 17, when a South African review for lbw would have proven successful had Vernon Philander not over-stepped.
"If you're saying that he [Warner] was out, that's obviously quite disappointing but there's not much we can do about that now," added Bavuma.
"Tomorrow there will be opportunities to get him out and that's what we're going to focus towards."
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