Cape Town - Anrich Nortje completed a near-perfect first morning for the Proteas when he removed England captain Ben Stokes with the final ball of the session to leave the hosts reeling at 100/5 in the first Test at Lord’s, in London, on Wednesday.
The visitors had been on song from the moment Dean Elgar won the toss and elected to bowl under cloudy skies in the series opener.
Talisman Kagiso Rabada led from the front with the new-ball, before his fellow fast bowlers joined in on an action-packed session.
Having passed a late fitness test to be ready for this Lord’s opener, Rabada hit his straps from the outset. He probed beautifully outside the off-stump and had his just reward when Alex Lees (5) played away from his body to offer Kyle Verreynne a comfortable catch behind the stumps for the opening breakthrough.
The horribly out-of-form Zak Crawley had no price and was next to depart for nine, wonderfully caught by Aiden Markram in the slip cordon.
The introduction of the lanky Marco Jansen into the attack brought immediate reward for the Proteas. Jansen’s extra height certainly provides him with an advantage, but it’s his ability to swing the ball both ways that really troubles the batters.
England’s former captain Joe Root (8) discovered that when Jansen wrapped him on the pads.
South Africa were intent not to let the early advantage slip, though, even with Ollie Pope playing positively at the other end. The England No 3 remained committed to his team’s all-out attacking strategy and was intent to pounce on anything loose - like when he upper-cutted Anrich Nortje over the slip cordon for a boundary.
Nortje continued to bristle in, however, and produced the ball of the morning to uproot the in-form Jonny Bairstow’s middle-stump. There was no clearer statement from the Proteas bowling attack that they were not going to be “Bazballed” around Lord’s like New Zealand and India before them.
And although Pope went to his half-century with a sumptuous cover drive the ball after being dropped by a diving Keegan Petersen at third slip, Nortje closed off the session for the Proteas with Stokes’ (20) dismissal just when the England skipper was starting to look dangerous.
IOL Sport