Johannesburg — The Proteas’ seam bowlers performed well on day one of the first Test against England, to leave the visitors on top at stumps at Lord’s.
IOL Sport’s Stuart Hess takes a look at the day’s action and gives us the five Plays of the Day.
CATCH — Very sharp move from Aiden Markram at second slip, who got down to his left and snapped up the chance that flew off the edge of Zak Crawley’s bat. Markram’s selection was somewhat surprising, given his recent Test form, and this is an important match as far as his future in the Test team is concerned.
BALL 1 — The ball, which induced the edge was the perfect implementation of a plan to Crawley, from Kagiso Rabada. The right-hand batter has struggled outside his off-stump this season, Rabada bowled the perfect full length, got the ball to nip off a wobbling seam, leaving the batter with no option. Rabada finished the day with 2/36.
BALL 2 — A thrilling moment, Anrich Nortje delivering from wide on the crease, using the angle and getting one through Jonny Bairstow’s defences, knocking middle stump clean out of the ground. The speed gun clocked it at 150km/h. Nortje’s vein popping celebrations were entirely appropriate. He finished with figures of 3/43.
TOSS — There was no poker face from the South African captain Dean Elgar. He called heads as the coin went up in the air and he couldn’t get the words “we’ll have a bowl”, out of his mouth quickly enough. Elgar knows that the bowlers are his team’s strength, and in helpful conditions, there was no other option but to bowl. It went as well as he could have hoped.
BELL — Located outside the Bowlers Bar in the Lord’s Pavilion, the Bell is rung and symbolically signals the start of play at the storied old venue. On Wednesday, that Bell was rung by Ian Bell, the elegant right hand batter who scored over 7 000 runs in 118 Tests.
IOL Sport