Rain shortens opening day - just 59 overs bowled
Cook holds England together with unbeaten 82
Stokes unbeaten on 21 - failures for Jennings & Malan
Westley makes 25 and skipper Root adds 29
Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special
South Africa want Joe Root to be driving off the front foot. Even if one goes for two, three or four, he'll edge the next one. It's perfect for them.
Bright sunshine across the ground now, there are some Hawaiian shirts in the crowd, not sure they are advisable - in any circumstances - but the weather is settled at the moment. Cook keeps the scoreboard moving with a neat clip off his hip for a couple.
Image source, Getty ImagesText us on 81111
Root & Flower - for all your horticultural needs.
Jonny in Halifax
Cook 42, Root 18
Morris has threatened the batsmen but he has also bowled two deliveries that have barely pitched on the cut strip, a la Steve Harmison on that Ashes tour. Cook flicks his fifth boundary of the innings and Root helps himself to three more runs with a stylish clip through mid-wicket.
Image source, Getty Images
Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport at The Oval
Are these supposed to be three lions? Dragons? Dinosaurs?
Cook 36, Root 13
Two gully fielders in place for captain Root now, who is content to play out a maiden, Morkel's first of the day.
Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special
Chris Morris has got a lot of talent. He's an excellent bowler and I think he can bat a bit too. I'd like to see him play properly and not slog it because he's got something.
Cook 36, Root 12
Here's a telling stat, I don't know who managed to compile it or what they do with their private lives, but since Trevor Bayliss became England coach, his team has the lowest percentage of deliveries defended against seam. Two more boundaries for the captain off the persistent Morris, one safely guided through gully, the other an edge that falls short of Du Plessis at second slip.
Ed Smith
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special
England should be on high alert for the next 20 minutes or so. That rain before lunch is helping the bowlers a little.
Cook 35, Root 4
I was just thinking it was nice to see two men from Essex dressed in white on live TV who are NOT on Love Island, but Westley is back in the hutch, out in the first over. Captain Root opens his account with an aerial cut shot at Morkel, safely over the infield to the boundary, beautifully struck.
Image source, PAText us on 81111
I feel sure Cook & Westley is a firm of estate agents, or should be. Any other interesting cricketer combinations? Woakes & Stokes: bookmakers?
Gabes in Cambs
The England captain Joe Root is the new batsman, greeted as always by that rather tiresome elongation of his name that sounds like a boo. I can't be doing with the Beef Johnston one either, despite the younger audiences motif. Anyway, Root's first ball from Morris is at 87mph but is harmlessly down the leg side.
Geoffrey Boycott
Ex-England batsman on BBC Test Match Special
Beautifully bowled. He was trying to hit it into the on-side but it was there for a cover drive - or leave it. The bowler has drawn him into that.
Westley c Du Plessis b Morris 25 (Eng 64-2)
The old curse of the resumption strikes again, it was a good one from Morris and Westley fished at it, the edge flying sharply to the South African captain diving to his left at second slip.
It might be an afternoon for regular weather updates because earlier we saw the players taken from the field by the umpires, only to return before the covers had reached the centre. Bright sunshine now as the players make their way down the steps and Chris Morris will resume from the Pavilion End.
Also as part of the TMS 60th birthday celebration, there will be a special T20 game at Sports Park Weetwood (part of the University of Leeds) on Thursday 24 August. Aggers and Boycott will manage the two teams, to be captained by Tuffers and Vaughan, with a full-star cast of players.
Ex-England stars Graeme Swann and Charlotte Edwards will be joined by fellow TMS commentators Alison Mitchell and Charles Dagnall, Olympic runner Yohan Blake, Harry Judd from McFly, Tom "Malfoy" Felton from the Harry Potter films, and many more. Blowers will be on commentary duty, with Jim Carter (the Downton Abbey butler) helping to serve up the tea.
Full details - including the chance to apply for tickets to be there - can be found here on the BBC Shows and Tours website. You'll also be able to watch on the BBC Red Button and BBC iPlayer, and listen on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra.
TMS is 60 years old this summer - and if you didn't hear it on BBC Radio 5 live on Tuesday, we can heartily recommend "Our TMS", a commemorative programme looking back at 60 glorious years of history. You can click on the video below, or download the podcast here for the first half of the programme. The second half, featuring Aggers, Blowers and Jim Maxwell looking back, is available here.
The legendary old ground in South London is hosting its 100th Test match today, only the fourth ground to do so; Lord's, the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Sydney Cricket Ground being the others.
There is a quiz on the BBC website, 10 questions in total, so, as the trusty rope is wielded around the playing area to dry off the turf, see how you get on with them.
The Oval is bathed in sunshine now and the groundstaff are hauling the covers from the playing area. Even before the rain the outfield was beautifully lush and manicured, very different from those old pictures of the West Indies thrashing England in 1976. So we should be set to resume at 13:30 BST.
Before the match, 28-year-old Tom Westley was presented with his England cap by former England skipper Graham Gooch, another man of Essex, who on this day 27 years ago - blimey that makes me feel old - made that epic 333 against India. Westley's first four scoring shots were all boundaries, favouring the leg side but there was also a fiercely hit slap through the covers.