ENG vs SA 1st Test Day1 Highlights, Scorecard, check out: On Wednesday’s first day of the first Test, here in this city, South Africa’s fast bowlers took advantage of the movement offered by Lord’s to reduce England to 116/6 before torrential downpours called play to a stop. At day’s end on the first day of play, England’s Ollie Pope (61 not out) and Stuart Broad (0 not out) were at the crease. Under cloudy conditions at Lord’s, Proteas captain Dean Elgar elected to bowl first and launched a four-pronged pace attack that was led by Kagiso Rabada, who had returned to the team following an injury layoff.

Early on, Rabada took the initiative by moving the ball around and containing England’s starters. The first victim, Alex Lees, was caught nicking Rabada through to the wicketkeeper and was out for five. Soon after, Rabada attacked again, and his partner, Zak Crawley, joined him.

Anrich Nortje, after two expensive overs, sent Jonny Bairstow, England’s batter of the summer, back on his way with one that angled in to beat Bairstow’s bat and take out the stumps. With Root gone, South Africa was in control of the situation. They increased their lead when Root was removed from the game.

Pope was the best batsman for England on display, playing both the front and back foot with ease, and used South Africa’s quicks to his advantage to get a magnificent half-century. Before Nortje struck again, captain Ben Stokes moved up to provide Pope with the company. This seemed to have brought England back into the match.

South Africa’s outstanding bowling performance, though, was hindered by rain. As the day’s prospects for play grew dim, what had at first appeared to be a light rainfall quickly evolved into a downpour, and eventually, the umpires decided to remove the players off the field.