Root is off to a dream start...

PAUL NEWMAN

If Joe Root dreamed of the perfect start to his captaincy, he would have struggled to come up with anything better than this. A four-day victory at Lord’s is as good as it gets.

Certainly, it was quite a contrast to the new England captain’s first match in charge of Yorkshire here when, as a stand-in for Andrew Gale three years ago, he watched helplessly as Middlesex chased the small matter of 472 to win.

There was never any danger of that happening yesterday, not even with South Africa needing considerably fewer than expected — nominally chasing 331 — after rushing England from their overnight riches of 119 for one to 233 all out.

All that did was expose the tourists to a dry, turning pitch that produced far more drama and compelling cricket than the ‘chief executive’s’ surfaces designed to last the full five days that can be all too prevalent here.

Moeen Ali will certainly hope groundsman Mick Hunt uses this as a template for future Lord’s Tests because it helped him produce the best all-round performance of his England career as South Africa imploded to 119 all out.

In all, 19 wickets fell on this fourth day for only 233 runs, 12 of them to spin, but that is hugely refreshing, especially when England had such trouble competing on the turning surfaces of India and Bangladesh last winter.

Six wickets yesterday went to the brilliant Moeen, who has had his difficulties learning his trade at the top, but who arrived as a genuine off-spinning successor to Graeme Swann here — with ten victims in this first Test.

And it followed his counter-attacking 87 in the first innings that helped England recover from 76 for four and — perhaps most eye-catchingly — two superb catches yesterday, one of them off his own bowling.

If Liam Dawson really was brought in as the No1 spinner to put pressure on Moeen in the first English two-spinner line-up for a Lord’s Test since 1993, then the man who considers himself primarily a batsman rose to the challenge.

To put this opening win in a four-match Investec series into context, South Africa have not lost a series in England since 1998 and have not lost any Test at Lord’s since 1960.

It will take some effort from the South Africans — beaten in the one-day and Twenty20 series — to recover from this, certainly in time for a second Test at Trent Bridge on friday where they will be without the banned Kagiso Rabada.

Root will have no such worries after excelling with 190 and then seeing his attack dismantle South Africa. The bowlers were led by Moeen, who will see his name on the Lord’s honours board twice, for a five-wicket haul and 10 wickets in the match. Moeen was quite brilliant from the moment he took a sharp caught and bowled to send back South Africa’s stand-in captain Dean Elgar.

There had already been one excellent catch when Jonny Bairstow, improving as a keeper by the match, dived to his left to claim a one-handed effort and give Jimmy Anderson his 299th Test wicket in England.

When Moeen leapt to claim a full-blooded pull and send back JP Duminy off Mark Wood on the stroke of tea, the only remaining question was whether South Africa could survive long enough take the match into a fifth day. They did not even come close.

Moeen had the odd stroke of luck along the way, notably when Quinton de Kock was bowled after hitting a ball into his front foot and seeing it rebound into the stumps.

But this was top-quality bowling from an off-spinner encouraged to attack by Root.

It should be said, too, that Dawson, such a controversial choice for this match, bowled much better in the second innings and produced arguably the ball of the match to trap South Africa’s best batsman, Hashim Amla.

Dawson, who was earlier dismissed for a pair after missing a Rabada full toss, keeps his place in an unchanged squad for Nottingham, not least because replacing him with another batsman would drop Moeen to eight.

South Africa will know they had their chances. But the slack and sloppy fielding display that was as much to blame as anything for this thrashing was summed up yesterday when Vernon Philander dropped a dolly to reprieve Bairstow.

England could have been a little concerned after collapsing to 182 for eight, but Philander’s miss, on top of other drops, no-ball wickets and bad reviews, released the pressure and Bairstow went on to make another brilliant half century.

Even the slow scoring rate of England’s top three, which saw Alastair Cook, Keaton Jennings and Gary Ballance going along at just two an over for much of the 139 they added for the first two wickets, could be seen as a positive because it provided a platform on an increasingly difficult pitch.

More than anything, this is a significant triumph for Root, who was always busy and proactive in the field, even if the jury is still out on his two contentious selections, Ballance and Dawson.

England one up and holding all the aces.