South Africa vs England 2017: 2nd Test day 1, 5 talking points

South Africa recovered from a mini slump to post 309/6 at stumps on Day 1 of the second Test between England and South Africa at Trent Bridge. Opting to bat first, the Proteas looked solid in the first hour against the menacing duo of Anderson and Broad, both of whom had a juicy Trent Bridge surface to extract life from.

Elgar eventually fell to Anderson, giving the Englishman his 300th Test scalp at home, the most by any fast bowler in home Tests. While Kuhn survived some stinging blows, Amla looked increasingly uncomfortable against the England pacers. Kuhn's wicket brought out a surprise as South Africa opted to send in Quinton de Kock at 4.

de Kock lambasted the England bowling in a counter-attacking innings alongside Hashim Amla, who completed 8000 runs in Test matches, giving South Africa the edge by tea.

However, the middle-order once again fell prey to some poor shots and it looked like England would wrap things up on Day 1 but Philander and Morris had other ideas as they forged an unbeaten 74 run stand to take the visitors to stumps.

Brief Scores: South Africa 309/6 (Amla 78, de Kock 68, Philander 54, Broad 3/47)

Here are the talking points from Day 1 of the second Test.

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#5 South Africa fight Trent Bridge morning blues

Trent Bridge is notorious for collapses. Ask the Aussies, who succumbed to a brilliant Broad spell of 8/15 in the last Ashes on England soil. Knowing this, it was bold from South Africa to win the toss and bat first on a pitch that had Broad and Anderson licking their lips. But du Plessis knew that if they could fight the morning blues, the pitch had runs in it, and fight they did.

Despite losing Elgar to a loose drive, Heino Kuhn brought out all his experience alongside Hashim Amla. Anderson and Broad probed constantly with testing lines and perfect seam movement but South Africa resisted the temptation and everything thrown at them before lunch. Kuhn and Amla took them to 56/1 in the first session, content that they had seen off the most difficult period of the Test with minimal damage.

#4 England continue to mess up reviews

England's new Test captain still has a long way to go to master the UDRS

If the shambolic reviews from both the teams at Lord's were not enough, England showed that they had done little homework in mastering the 'T' signal. Close to lunch, Ben Stokes vehemently appealed for a leg before decision against Hashim Amla and persuaded Root to take the review when the on-field umpire turned down his appeal. Replays however, revealed a clear inside edge and England lost their first review by the 19th over.

Shortly after lunch, Bairstow messed up another call when he convinced his skipper to go upstairs for a leg before wicket decision against Heino Kuhn off Stuart Broad. The ball had swung back in sharply and had struck Kuhn above the knee roll. Nevertheless, Bairstow and Broad seemed convinced but had to face up to a furious Root when ball tracker showed that the ball was missing the stumps. But Broad made amends when he bowled Kuhn three overs later.

#3 The Anderson-Amla contest

Anderson bowled an outstanding spell to Hashim Amla after he took his 300th wicket at home

When two of the best lock horns, sparks are bound to fly. Contests between the bat and ball rarely come better than James Anderson vs Hashim Amla on a breezy morning in Trent Bridge. Every cricket fan’s delight, the contest lived up to its billing. Anderson kept a tidy line to Amla, probing the fourth stump line with his outswingers.

Soon, he hit his straps and between overs 20-30, had Amla in all sorts of trouble. Such was his consistency that Amla found it difficult to get off the mark. The occasional one also straightened, adding to Amla's woes.

But as is the case with all class batsmen, the South African veteran came back with a strong reply in the 29th over, punching Anderson through the covers with pinpoint accuracy. The disciplined seamer, however, returned to his immaculate lines and to beat Amla’s edge frequently. It was sheer delight for the crowd gathered at the ground who witnessed one of the best battles of the season.

#2 The de Kock promotion and partnership with Amla

Amla grew in confidence in the company of de Kock but fell soon after the keeper departed

South Africa sprung a surprise when they pushed Quinton de Kock to no.4 in the batting order, ahead of Faf du Plessis and Temba Bavuma. The wicket-keeper batsman had been used at no.7 in Tests but just before the Trent Bridge Test, he had expressed his desire to bat higher up the order in an interview with The Cricketer.

"Obviously, I would like to bat a little bit higher, but I look at the team first. I’ve never really batted higher in Test cricket. In four-day cricket, I have opened the batting but I didn’t keep, now I am keeping, it doesn’t help. I could end up keeping for 180 overs then have to go and open. I still end up scoring runs on top of it – I’m going to be one of the fitter guys in the cricketing world, if not the fittest guy in cricket. It’s a large workload on me, we’ll have to see how things go," he had revealed in that interview.

The Proteas think-tank seems to have taken that into consideration as they pushed the keeper-batsman up the order. The move paid rich dividends as once again de Kock counter-attacked, bringing up his half-century from a mere 59 balls. He was a joy to watch and exquisite with his shot selection, helping Amla get out of a rut as well. The duo put on 113 in quick time before de Kock slashed at a Broad delivery to gift Cook a catch at first slip on 68.

#1 South Africa collapse, then recover

The way Philander is batting these days, South Africa can afford to go one batsman light as they did today

South Africa's trend of collapsing in a heap did not stop as Amla, Faf du Plessis and Bavuma departed in quick succession post the wicket of de Kock immediately after tea. What had looked like South Africa's day slowly turned in England’s favour as each one of the middle order batsmen fell to appalling shots.

Amla was done in by Broad's bouncer while du Plessis edged one off Stokes down the leg-side. Bavuma was bamboozled by a Stokes in-dipper and edged to Bairstow off a nothing shot to leave the two pace-bowling all-rounders with the task of resurrecting the innings.

Resurrect they did. Philander and Morris showed the way for the middle-order batsmen with textbook defence and immaculate drives. Philander, who is increasingly becoming a threatening batsman these days, compiled a fine half-century while Morris gave him good company with a solid 23. The unbroken 74 run partnership took South Africa to a respectable 309/6 at stumps.