South Africa’s seam attack ripped into England’s middle and lower order on Friday to secure a massive innings and 12-run win in the first Test 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.
BALL 1 - With Rabada and Nortje sharing 13 wickets in the match, Ngidi's efforts might be forgotten, but he was brilliant on Friday. The ball to get rid of Joe Root angled into the right hander and left him down the slope, tempting Root into a flash, with the subsequent edge flying to second slip.
BALL 2 - Nortje would have knocked back the top of Lees’ off stump, had the bat not got in the way. The edge was found, giving the wicketkeeper a simple catch. It was the perfect ball from around the wicket to a left hand batter.
SPELL - Lees’s wicket was the second one of three for Nortje in a lightning burst from the Nursery End. Captain Dean Elgar said he was “intense and angry” and he blew England away in that period. Jonny Bairstow got shook up by the pace and Ben Foakes didn’t want to face it.
LORD’S - That’s win number five from seven Tests at the Home of Cricket in the post isolation era for the Proteas, the second innings win in that period, while two others were by 10 wickets and another by 356 runs.
CATCH - Some early smiles for the English, as the leaping Stuart Broad, at wide mid-on, jumped and with his right hand snaffled a beauty to claim Rabada’s wicket off the third ball of the day.
QUOTE - “Always a better standard of rubbish at Lord’s” - Mark Butcher on commentary, as Rabada picked up corks that had popped off the Prosecco and champagne bottles from the crowd at the Home of Cricket. Hopefully some bottles made their way to the away team’s dressing room on Friday evening.
IOL Sport