Christmas comes early for England

Steve Harmison presented new Test captain Kevin Pietersen with a gift of a first day in charge as England dominated South Africa at the Brit Oval.

Harmison compared last night to Christmas Eve, such was his excitement at a return to the side after an eight-match absence, and he responded with a hostile performance on the opening day which included two wickets.

New-ball partner James Anderson pitched in with three, his first taking him to 100 in Tests, as South Africa were blitzed for 194 despite winning the toss.

“Obviously I was nervous coming back in,” said Harmison. “I got a text message off Kevin last night to say welcome back and good luck.

“I just said to him it felt like Christmas Eve, I was so excited for the game.

“God only knows how Kev felt going into his first game as England captain but I was just pleased to be back.”

England’s attack went through the tourists so quickly that by the close, South Africa’s lead had been reduced by 49 runs for the loss of Andrew Strauss.

They exploited the bounce in the surface perfectly, in fact, to make light of a trio of dropped catches by Alastair Cook.

The first came off the first ball of the match, sent down by the returning Harmison in an over which also saw him floor Proteas captain Graeme Smith and smack wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose in the mouth.

“Obviously momentum went from that first over,” he said. “It was an interesting start.

“It wasn’t too bad, it was better than I thought it was going to be. It was excitement more than nerves, I think, but I have bowled nearly 500 overs this year, so it was a case of running in and trusting my ability.

Kevin Pietersen entrusted Steve Harmison with the first ball of the match, and he nearly took a wicket

“To be honest the first ball was not a good ball. It was a short, wide long hop which he smacked straight to gully. It wasn’t as if it was top of off, he’d nicked and it had been dropped.

“I never get too upset about dropped catches, it is one of those things - people don’t do it on purpose. It would have been nice but it is about England.

“England as a team were fantastic. There were 11 leaders out there.

“Kevin did a fantastic job. I thought he was brilliant as captain. He didn’t get challenged that much because a lot of things he did went right for him and the things we did went right for us.”

Most emphatically so when with two consecutive deliveries from the Pavilion End he had Smith caught off a top-edged hook and knocked out Hashim Amla’s middle-stump to send his colleagues and the Brit Oval crowd into rapture.

“It is not a knock on county cricket but you don’t get that in county cricket,” said Harmison, who was axed from the side after defeat in New Zealand earlier this year.

“You might get that once every six weeks when you get a top, top player out but when there are 18,000 in the ground and there is an atmosphere, a buzz - that is what I have missed.

“That’s why I was never, ever going to go away. I was never letting my Test career go.”

It was the cheapest score South Africa have been dismissed for in the series as the extra speed of a four-man unit, also including Stuart Broad and Andrew Flintoff, knocked over the top order.

“Pace has its benefits but if you don’t hit the areas you’re in trouble,” said Amla, who hit an attractive 36 in helping the South Africans to 103 for one. “I think it’s a mixture of pace and hitting the areas and causing pressure.

“It’s unfortunate that most of us batters got out to adequate deliveries or loose shots.

“We’ve been in this situation before at Lord’s and hopefully in the second innings we can dig deep and recover some of that.

“The series is won but we’re playing for our country and a lot of pride goes into that.”