England vs South Africa: Ollie Robinson picks five before Proteas fight back on emotional day as cricket returns

There have been many days in Test match cricket’s long history, but none quite like today at The Oval.

It began with spine-tingling silence, a capacity crowd of over 27,000 people on their feet and completely noiseless for almost ten minutes – from the moment the teams made their way down the dressing room steps until both national anthems had been sung, not a sound to be heard in the entire ground – an extraordinarily unified moment of solemn respect.

There was perhaps a danger that the emotion of the moment could have overwhelmed some of the players, they can after all have never experienced a start to the day quite like it, however of the two sides it was not England who looked out of step to begin with.

A beautiful few moments as cricket pays its respects to Her Majesty The Queen. pic.twitter.com/3QnZiFEOKq

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 10, 2022

England’s bowlers were superb right from the start, Ollie Robinson soon had the crowd on their feet once more, this time in celebration, Dean Elgar’s off stump sent flying through the air, silence from The Oval replaced by a joyous roar.

A combination of form and fitness had seen South Africa make drastic changes to their batting line-up after defeat at Old Trafford, but if they were hoping for different results then they will have been sorely disappointed.

Robinson was running rampant, he had Keegan Petersen, Ryan Rickleton, Kyle Verreynne and Wiaan Mulder dismissed inside the first 12 overs, with James Anderson picking up Sarel Erwee as well to leave the tourists 36/6, a position they only marginally improved on by lunch, going into the break 69/6.

Well bowled, Ollie