1st Test: England captain Ben Stokes 'absolutely fine' after an 'off-game' against South Africa

The hosts were comprehensively outplayed as the Proteas won inside three days, with this reverse England's first loss under their new red-ball leadership duo of skipper Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum following a run of four successive wins. It was only England's fourth innings defeat in 128 years of Test matches at Lord's and the first since a South Africa team led by Graeme Smith enjoyed a similar thumping in 2003.

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South Africa skittled England out for 149 on Friday to win the first Test by an innings and 12 runs inside three days at Lord's and go 1-0 up in the three-match series.

"It was an off-game for us, and that's absolutely fine," said Stokes. "It's not something I'm going to be throwing our toys out of the pram over." England were already in dire straits when they started their second innings before lunch on Friday, with the hosts 161 runs behind after South Africa had made 326 in reply to their meagre first-innings 165. They then collapsed to 149 all out before tea in a match where England batted for just 82.4 overs across both their innings. It was all a far cry from the dynamic run-scoring that had seen England chase down several high totals this season including 378 to beat India at Edgbaston last month. On Friday, in stark contrast, opener Alex Lees and tailender Stuart Broad shared a joint top-score of 35 in England's woeful second innings.

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South Africa were utterly dominant, triumphing inside three days against an England team who had won all four of their previous Tests under a new leadership duo of captain Ben Stokes and coach