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RSA won by an innings and 12 runs

Akshaya: So, there you go! Dean Elgar and his men show no interest in Bazball! They didn't let England look settle anywhere in this Test. Proteas gave them a good thrashing. The first test was won by South Africa by an innings and 12 runs. This is the first defeat of the summer for the side led by Ben Stokes.

South Africa ended the first Test match in three days and showed excellent performance and defeated England badly by an innings and 12 runs.

Dean Elgar won the toss and decided to bowl which was seen going in his favor throughout this match. It's difficult to defeat a formidable team like England at home, but the Proteas team did so with relative ease. England's opening batters came out to play the first innings, even then the Proteas bowlers were completely dominating them. Seven England batters were returned to the pavilion on a single-digit score. Pope shared a 45-run partnership with the captain but England's tail-enders could not take advantage of that partnership. Pope played brilliant innings of 73 runs for his team but he did not get the support of any batsman from the other side. In the first innings, the entire England team was all out for just 165 runs. 

South Africa put a mammoth score of 326 on the board in reply to England's 165. South Africa took a lead of 161 runs. Proteas's openers gave a great start to their team, both the batsmen put 85 runs on the board without losing any wicket. Dean Elgar (47 off 81) missed his half-century by just three runs and Anderson gave England their first breakthrough. Sarel Erwee played a brilliant 73 and was also the top scorer for South Africa. Stokes trapped the Sarel on his ball and showed the way to the pavilion. After that no Proteas batters could convert their innings into a big score, only Jansen scored a good 48 runs, due to which South Africa could put a big score like 326 on the board. Keshav Maharaj also played a cameo inning of 41 runs.

England team players came to play their second innings. Crawley and Lees both looked in good touch against the fast bowlers and were playing very defensively. As soon as Dean Elgar changed the bowler and handed the ball to Maharaj, he trapped Crawley (13 off 22) in his first over with his spin. Ollie Pope came to support Lees and both seemed to not let any more wickets fall till lunch. But Maharaj ruined their dream and made the Ollie Pope walk cheaply by trapping him in his pads. By lunch, England had lost their two wickets for 38 runs.

After lunch, Root and Lees took charge of England's sinking innings. Lungi put England on the back foot by dismissing Root for just 6 runs. Bairstow and Lees added 24 runs for the fourth wicket and could not prolong that partnership. The English batsmen were being absolutely dominated by the South African bowlers after lunch. Bairstow and Ben were dismissed by Nortje. From England, only one good partnership was seen between Broad and Stokes but that too failed to save the match. 

However, from the bowling side, after South Africa got the first breakthrough, they did not give the England team any chance to return to the match. Anrich Nortje was an effective and impactful bowler throughout the innings. He was the pick of the bowlers for Proteas. He took three wickets and gave away 47 runs. Maharaj, Jansen, and Rabada also pick up a couple of wickets. Lungi took one wicket each. South Africa have made a good start in their opening Test match series and their fans will also want them to continue this performance.

Here the Presentations begin!

Ben Stokes | England Captain: "We are disappointed to lose. But if you look at what we played and they played and they deserve the win and they outplayed us. It won't deter us from our playing style and it's a kind of wake-up call.
 
We didn't execute properly and we paid the price. No excuses as we have played quite a lot to know how to handle things. I think Pope played a quality innings in the first innings. He is a quality player and the way he played showed his quality under bowler-friendly conditions. Pope was the biggest positive for us. I don't know maybe win the toss in Manchester. We are looking forward to that contest. "

Dean Elgar | South Africa Captain: "Seems that way. The coach gave me a pat on the back saying you have a good record here in Lord's. I have a good success rate here. A good win and loss record here.

It was a great performance from us. Starting with the seamers to everyone, executing their plans and roles to a great effect. Especially, Nortje was coming in with some purpose. He was angry, and emotional as well. He really bowled in great areas. A lot of effort it takes to get this strong England batting lineup.

Ahh! It was a decision made by the management as seeing the overcast conditions alongside the pitch (talking about toss). Kesh (Maharaj) bowled really his heart out and got a couple of wickets upfront to give us the confidence.

Marco Jansen is a young talent. He showed a great character to be out there dealing with the tail-up English bowlers. He has played a few international games, but his application was a great one. He has done it well in the First-Class setup, but to do it here was a great achievement. Erwee too played well alongside me up at the top.

We will celebrate the success of the Lord's for a couple of days now. And add to that, today it's a Friday afternoon (chuckles). You know what is up in front of us, haha. We won't do much work for at least a couple of days. It's a great place to be playing cricket and winning here means a lot."  

That brings us to the end of the covers of the first Test match between South Africa and England. For now, this is me Tugral Azmi signing it off along with my esteemed co-commentator Akshaya Krishna Polya and Ayan Chatterjee with our scorer/analyst Vishnu Verma. Until then stay safe...!!