With his participation having hung in the balance due to injury prior to their Test series opener against England, Kagiso Rabada produced a glowing performance for the Proteas on day one at Lord’s on Wednesday.

Rabada had to battle a “niggle” during the T20I series against England and Ireland recently, which forced him to be sidelined, and which for him “was a concern” at the time.  

However, during day one of the first Test, Rabada was one of the primordial accomplices in South Africa’s bowling order to break much ground in England’s batting line-up. Rabada took two wickets for 36 runs, having bowled the most overs on the day of 12.

He was backed up superbly by Anrich Nortje, who took figures of 3/43 in nine overs, as well as Marco Jansen, who claimed 1/18 in six overs. Lungi Ngidi rounded off South Africa’s pace attack, having bowled five overs for 12 runs.

“I didn’t know if I was going to make the first Test match, but luckily I did. This week leading up to the match I felt like I could actually play so I’m glad I got through it,” a relieved Rabada said.

SA took advantage yesterday of the turn in the wicket to make much headway and restrict England to 116/6 at the close of play when rain had the final say.

“We’ve always bowled the same and there was a bit in the wicket today and we got rewards for putting the ball in the right areas.

“Normally, you tend to do the same things in Test cricket, but you have slightly different plans for different batters. But all-in-all the game was just kept simple.”

Rabada said much analysis went into their preparations of trying to “adapt to a team’s strategy” and that they were aware of the “infamous slope at Lord’s”, which has a drop of 2.5m from the north to the south end of the ground. 

According to Rabada, that was “quite the topic” in the lead-up, particularly for those players who hadn’t yet played at the ground.

“Generally, you just need to get a feel of which end you’re bowling from and to see what’s happening with the ball and adjust from there. It’s about experiencing your bowling from each end.

“I was bowling down the slope so generally that takes the ball away from the right-handers and playing with it from there.”

The 27-year-old said SA are well-stocked in terms of their pace attack and that they “have all the ingredients” to be successful in that space. He paid much-vaunted respect to the English batting line-up, who are “top-quality batters” and who “try to put pressure on whoever they’re facing”.

“That’s why it’s Test cricket. There are top bowlers bowling at top batters,” Rabada added.

With play resuming on day two on Thursday, Ollie Pope is taking charge at the crease with 61* and he is batting alongside Stuart Broad, who’d just taken to the middle in the last over.