Andrew Flintoff gave a thrilling illustration of what England have been missing throughout his long absence when he in the dying minutes of the second day.
England's bowlers had largely squandered ideal conditions in which to fight their way back into the match, but Flintoff finally tore in from the Pavilion End in a ferocious, bruising spell of six overs to rough up and then dismiss and AB de Villiers as the crowd bayed in appreciation.
It was tough and dramatic Test cricket at its very best.
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The most frustrating aspect of was that, as feared, it was their well-publicised batting problems that cost them. Anyone can get out first ball, but it was the last thing Michael Vaughan needed today.
With about the value of his place in the side as a batsman, he desperately wanted a score here, but was undone by the faintest of edges to the wicketkeeper, and the pressure on him will be ratcheted up another notch.
A team can just about accommodate one batsman struggling for form, but not two, and it was no surprise to see struggling so painfully. He has been in dreadful form all summer and this laboured innings of 45 minutes for his four betrayed his lack of confidence.
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In returning to the tried and tested format of , England are hoping to give the impression of bolstering their batting line-up.
Tim Ambrose batting at number six at Headingley simply did not look right - he does not yet have a presence at the crease - and although they could have restored Andrew Flintoff to that position, they hope that four bowlers will be enough here.
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Well after a breathtaking Twenty20 Cup Finals Day at the Rose Bowl its back to Test match duty for the 91Èȱ¬ cricket team.
Twenty20 cricket may not be everyone's favourite form of the game, but even its fiercest critics would have to admit in Southampton will be a difficult act to follow at Edgbaston.
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If there is a sporting tradition that teams sometimes thrive at times of adversity, continued that tradition with at the Rose Bowl.
Less than two months ago, the county admitted there was after a poor start to the season in the County Championship - and a vote of no confidence in the committee was looming.
But since then, they have shaken off the loss of their captain to an ankle injury as an unheralded, youthful side raced to the top of - and went on to collect their first major trophy since winning the Championship in 1993, with the promise of the to come.
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The focus of the 's Finals Day has primarily been entertainment - but since the competition was , the Twenty20 world has changed.
With riches now on offer from , the and (more importantly for the England-qualified players) , at Hampshire's ground on Saturday had more of the look of an extended audition.
On a day when county mascots participated in a "dance-off" as well as the usual race, the innings of the day came from Middlesex's , a regular in the England one-day side, whose overshadowed two brutal knocks by team-mate , a non-English-qualified "" player - while there were still plenty of homegrown cricketers keen to prove their credentials in the shortest form of the game.
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I remember speaking to several players who admitted it was a competition that they would not be taking seriously. The phrase "" was often used about the new format of the game, while broadcasters like us were promised unique access to players throughout matches hinting that they didn't mind being disturbed as it was "only Twenty20".
Well I can guarantee that the players from , , and will be taking the 2008 Twenty20 Cup finals day very seriously. Not only has the competition become one of the players' favourites over the past five years, mainly because of the large crowds it attracts and the excellent atmosphere created at grounds, but this year's Twenty20 stands to be the most lucrative competition in county cricket history.
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Welcome to Ask Bearders, where Test Match Special statistician Bill "The Bearded Wonder" Frindall answers your questions on all things cricket.
Below are Bill's responses to some of your questions posed at the end of his last column and if you have a question for Bill, leave it at the end of this blog entry. Please do include your country of residence - Bill loves to hear where all his correspondents are posting from.
Bill isn't able to answer all of your questions, however. 91Èȱ¬ Sport staff will choose a selection of them and send them to Bearders for him to answer.
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Well after , the 91Èȱ¬ cricket team moves back into Twenty20 mode for the climax to .
And with the potential pot of gold that could come with qualification for the lucrative , this is a really important few days for five county sides. I say five, because of course there is some unfinished business before finals day.
One of the few positives to come out of England's four-day demise at Headingley is that we are able to bring full commentary on Five Live Sports Extra of .
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It was always going to be a and they probably left themselves too much to do.
South Africa batted well in their first innings - which included brilliant centuries from AB de Villiers and Ashwell Prince - a feat none of England's batsmen could manage. More on that later.
In some ways the return of Andrew Fintoff for this Test threw up more questions than answers.
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The dismissal of Michael Vaughan late in the day was a who, with still two full days left of this game, are hot favourites to take a 1-0 lead in this series.
Overall these are worrying times for England; their bowling shows a lack of penetration and menace. Stuart Broad and James Anderson can perhaps be excused for looking jaded after their efforts at Lord's, but while Andrew Flintoff and Monty Panesar tried hard, their failure to extract life from this Headingley pitch is a concern.
South Africa's bowling unit has shown more bite throughout this game and seems a lot more threatening.
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So much for the snakes in the pitch, and helpful bowling conditions - and are well on course to take the second Test by the scruff of the neck.
Only one wicket fell all day, and that was a very poor lbw decision by , with Darren Pattinson the fortunate bowler after Hashim Amla inexplicably missed a leg-side full toss.
Pattinson celebrated his first Test wicket, but looked exposed and out of his depth when he returned later in the day to bowl at only 78 miles per hour.
Significantly, Michael Vaughan did not give him the second new ball and again one is left to question the judgment of the selectors who felt that he warranted international selection on precious little evidence, and over the heads of other more worthy candidates.
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Decent bowling conditions and some reckless batting contributed to the clatter of wickets on . First came the news of Darren Pattinson's debut - something I am still battling to comprehend.
Born in Grimsby and raised in Australia, Pattinson admitted to me before the start of play that he has never harboured any ambition to play for England. So what on earth is he doing wearing an England cap? That should have been where this whole saga ended.
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Today's selection of for England is one of the most leftfield decisions I've ever seen.
The chairman of selectors Geoff Miller has clearly studied the form of all the bowlers in county cricket - as he should - and .
I've got no problem with Darren (who was born in Grimsby but raised in Australia), but we've got to look at the bigger picture.
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Normally, returning to the England fold would be the big talking point in cricket.
But even Freddie was overshadowed on Wednesday when the England and Wales Cricket Board announced the creation of an , plus other reforms to the county structure.
The most important aspect of the reforms is that the County Championship remains intact and robust.
There was a real concern that a three-way conference system might have been introduced to free up room for yet another one-day tournament but common sense has prevailed...
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Although the First Test may not have proved the most exciting in the end on the field, it was more than eventful in the Test Match Special commentary box.
It is quite remarkable the range of people who wander in to see us during a game, but I think this week at Lord's must set a record for the variety of characters to join us during one match.
We welcomed Conservative leader David Cameron, Nelson Mandela's lawyer Lord , new London Mayor Boris Johnston, the lead singer of Keane Tom Chaplain, former Stranglers front man , outspoken football manager Neil Warnock, comedian Ronnie Corbett , impressionist Rory Bremner and all-round entertainer Stephen Fry. That's just the people I can remember!...
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It might not have been the most compelling viewing we have ever seen on a cricket field, but the discipline and patience shown by South Africa's top order batsmen to was mighty impressive.
There will, sadly, be those who think that this was an example of tedious Test cricket, but that is a shallow observation.
We are lucky to enjoy a sport which can, in its various guises, accommodate all tastes, and the character shown by , who was at the crease for more than nine hours and had the slowest run rate ever by a Lord's centurion, was immense.
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These are my ratings for the England team who drew the first Test at Lord's. Six out of 10 is a par performance, and this time I have also given a mark for the pitch.
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There is no doubt about who will have benefited the most from South Africa's obdurate performance at Lord's today - Andrew Flintoff.
As well as Graeme Smith and Neil McKenzie batted, and they did play very well indeed, as lacking a cutting edge.
They needed someone to charge in and produce short spells of hostile pace bowling, as the ball did not swing for James Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom and even though they plugged away, that left them with very little in reserve.
Stuart Broad did his best to bang the ball in, but lacked the pace on such a placid surface to give the batsmen the hurry-up.
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Sir Allen Stanford, the man who if they win a Twenty20 match in November, is no fan of Test cricket.
And if he had been at Lord's on Sunday, it is fair to assume he would not have suddenly been converted like Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus.
In the best weather of the match, South Africa's openers remorselessly drove Michael Vaughan and his bowlers to distraction with courageous, studied essays in self-denial.
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All the talk recently has been about the , and we've also just seen three weeks of domestic Twenty20 where it's all been whizz-bang, fast-food cricket.
So fans of that brand of cricket who have been watching the first half of Sunday's play at Lord's would possibly be praying for more Twenty20 cricket.
But to me, this has been what proper Test cricket is about.
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England have been all over South Africa since the first ball of this match, and outplayed them in every aspect of the game.
On Saturday, England's bowlers chipped away, backed up by some outstanding catches while South Africa's batsmen - with the notable exception of - looked tentative and lost.
England have been working exceptionally hard at their fielding - and their catches in particular.
The new fielding coach, , has introduced a raft of new routines to complement a range of new specially-designed equipment, and there is no question that England's ground fielding and catching has improved...
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A 91Èȱ¬ Radio 5 Live phone-in a few weeks ago asked its listeners to identify the best English sporting occasion.
While facing obvious competition from the likes of the FA Cup final, the men's final at Wimbledon and the Grand National, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the Saturday of the Lord's Test getting its fair share of mentions.
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Amid the - provided you weren't South African - was a sad sight that many English fans would have forgotten as they supped their umpteenth ale in the taverns of NW8 after the second day's play.
Paul Collingwood, the doughtiest street fighter in the England side, saw his neck inching closer to the chopping-block after making just seven in what could be his only innings of the Test.
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The is only one of a number of proposals that the England and Wales Cricket Board will consider as it plots its course into a largely uncertain, but definitely exciting, future.
However, so radical is the concept of forming nine 'partners' - rather than franchises - based at the nine international cricket grounds in England and Wales that it has quickly caused a furious reaction from many within the game.
I have never felt that a franchise system would appeal to cricket lovers here.
Not only is there no attachment to a team from Birmingham if you live in Leicester, but Twenty20 cricket is so short, that any journey of more than an hour hardly makes the experience worthwhile.
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Twenty20 cricket has grabbed all the headlines and the public's imagination over the last four or five years.
Today about the possible introduction of a new T20 league to begin in 2010, which in effect is the English version of the .
There will be more money, more exposure to the game, and I just hope that this is going to be long-term.
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of this much-anticipated England - South Africa series lived up to its billing in every way.
Hard-fought and determined cricket from both sides produced a day which ended with England comfortably ahead on points having been put into bat on a pitch that had been sweating under the covers for two days.
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Like a Hollywood blockbuster that flops at the box office, South Africa's much vaunted high-velocity pace attack was unable to live up to the hype as the Lord's Test began on Thursday.
All the preamble had billed the tourists as the team with the aces, whose coach Mickey Arthur had gone so far as to imagine a future where his two younger quicks, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, would one day be the best two bowlers in the world.
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The fact that Andrew here at Lord's has made it pretty clear that he will line up against South Africa in the second Test.
Before that, he will need to come through Lancashire's four-day match against Hampshire which starts on Friday, unscathed and I suppose a couple of failures with the bat could complicate matters.
But it is that England have missed Flintoff most, and now they believe that he is physically capable of playing in a four-man attack, he could bat as low as number eight if they want.
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The clock is ticking and Twenty20 finals day at the Rose Bowl is threatened with being turned into a farce. Semi-finals can only be played between four teams and not four plus whoever else feels it unfair that they shouldn't have done .
Those who are responsible for the error must feel bad enough over this so let them be. Those who travelled to watch the match may not feel so generous and, as long as they have never made a mistake in their working life, they have every right to be annoyed.
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Already this season on we have been joined in the commentary box by a man who has played the part of the Prime Minister, by a singer who has performed in front of the Prime Minister, and by someone who has been sacked by the Prime Minister. Well at Lord's this week we are going to be joined by a man .
After Baroness Amos, the former leader of the House of Lords, soprano and actor , David Cameron will be the latest "View from the Boundary" at Lord's during the lunch interval on Friday.
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Having watched cricket in all its forms since an early age, I thought I'd seen it all.
Whether enjoying a summer's day at a picturesque county ground like or , waiting with baited breath as a one-day final nears its conclusion at Lord's, or squirming as , sit me down in front of a cricket match on a sunny day and I'm a happy man.
So with the hottest day of the year looming, while , I was armed with a camera and lucky enough to get to see cricket in the most bizarre surroundings I've ever seen - the helipad of a cross-Channel ferry, as , where they will face the West Indies, South Africa and India.
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