Rabada and Nortje rock England at Lord's

Rain stopped play just six overs into the afternoon session but it was long enough for South Africa to claim a sixth wicket to leave the home side struggling on 116 for six after just 32 overs on the opening day of the first test against England at Lord’s on Wednesday.

Ben Foakes (6) was bowled off an inside edge as Anrich Nortje’s extra pace brought him a third wicket and current figures of 9-1-43-3.

Kagiso Rabada claimed two early wickets to lead a rampaging South African bowling attack in the morning session as England slipped to 55 for four before ‘recovering’ to 100 for five at lunch.

Rabada, who has spent the week battling to shake off an ankle injury, removed both openers in his first spell of 6-1-17-2 before Nortje grabbed two more and Marco Jansen chipped in with the crucial wicket of Joe Root after captain Dean Elgar had won the toss and chosen to bowl first under grey skies and on a well-grassed pitch.

Ollie Pope led the fightback for the home side with a counter-attacking, unbeaten 51 from only 70 deliveries but his partnership of 45 with captain Ben Stokes ended with the England captain’s dismissal with the final ball of the session.

Left-hander Alex Lees (5) was the first to go edging a flat-footed delivery to keeper Kyle Verreynne, having been comprehensively beaten by half a dozen inswingers which preceded a delivery which went straight on to flick the edge.

Zak Crawley’s hopeless run of form at the top of the order continued with a low edge to second slip where Aiden Markram held a fine catch to send the right-hander back to the pavilion for an unconvincing nine from 23 balls.

Left armer Jansen was enjoying prolific swing into the right-handers and it proved too much for Root (8) who was trapped lbw by a delivery which pitched on middle stump and was shown, on review, to be just clipping the top of leg stump.

Jonny Bairstow has been in the form of his life this summer but was embarrassingly beaten for pace by a Nortje delivery which removed his middle stump for a five-ball duck.

Pope played and missed as much as any batter could expect in difficult conditions and Stokes struck four defiant boundaries in his 20 from 30 balls before he, too, was hurried by a Nortje delivery which he edged to Keegan Petersen at third slip.

Rabada (9-1-26-2) returned for three more overs before the break and was unfortunate not to claim a third wicket while Nortje and Jansen (6-1-18-1) had good reason to enjoy the famous Lord’s catering.

ENGLAND: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes (capt), Ben Foakes (wk), Matty Potts, Jack Leach, Stuart Broad, James Anderson

SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar (capt), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Lungi Ngidi