Not long until the players are back out at Taunton. As ever with Test cricket, it feels like this next session could be crucial!

Heather Knight has had one life already. If there is anyone in this England side that you would back to make it count, it is the skipper.

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Sally Burton: Should be at Chester Zoo with some friends. Instead, I’m at home with Covid, watching England cricket. C’mon England!

Katherine Brunt
England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

There is a point where I boil over and it isn't good but there is a sweet spot where I need to be in a battle.

It was really natural against Shafali Verma last summer, but sometimes I am 'Katherine, calm down' and I watch it back and I think 'that was embarrassing, my parents are probably watching I need to stop'.

It was like a personal attack when she did it last summer - she was the number one batter in the world, she was no mug, she wasn't a child. She deserves the respect and I saw what I was doing as a compliment. I wouldn't have been doing it if I felt like it was easy to get her out.

Perhaps the biggest moment of the morning came in the minutes before lunch. Heather Knight, having made a big unbeaten hundred in her last Test appearance, was drawn into a drive by Marizanne Kapp and edged the ball to slip...

However, with wicket-keeper Sinalo Jafta diving across her, Sune Luus shelled it and Knight lives to fight another day. Just how costly could that drop prove?

The England openers appeared in complete control and the partnership had reached 65 before Anneke Bosch trapped Beaumont lbw.

The South Africa seamer then castled Lamb a couple of overs to lift the tourists...

Emma Lamb looked at home on her Test debut, driving and cutting with confidence.

No doubt she'll have been delighted just to have got a single in the first over after no runs in her three previous international appearances (there was a DNB and a not out in there, to be fair to her)!

Back to the action we've seen today then and England made a strong start to the day, replying to South Africa's 284.

The openers started slowly, getting used to conditions, before starting to accelerate...

Katherine Brunt
England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

The four months during the Ashes and the World Cup was the most mentally and physically savage of our careers so far, but that is the way that cricket is going. That's what it was in the end.

Katherine Brunt
England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

It was nice to be on the other side yesterday and just relax and not worry about my body breaking in half.

Anya and I have probably been speaking about retirement for about five years every single month.

Anya Shrubsole
Former England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

I probably knew retirement was on the cards before we headed out to Australia for the Ashes series to be honest.

When we came back into training in late October and November I started to think about it but wanted one last push for an Ashes and World Cup but I knew almost certainly that it would be my last.

Anneke Bosch claimed the two wickets to fall in that session but Marizanne Kapp will feel she should have had one, too...

Speaking of bowlers, we have two England greats on Test Match Special during the lunch interval as the recently retired Anya Shrubsole and Katherine Brunt discussing their lethal new-ball partnership among other things!

Image source, BBC Sport

Thanks, Ffion. England perhaps just the happier of the two sides as they take lunch but it would have been a very different story had Sune Luus held onto that catch!

Emma Lamb and Tammy Beaumont got the home side off to a good start but both fell to Bosch. So, it'll be over to the experienced pair of Heather Knight and Nat Sciver in the afternoon session,

Image source, BBC Sport

And as the players head off for their break, it's time for me to do the same. Here's Sam Drury to take you through the lunch break and the afternoon session.

Alex Hartley
Former England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

This is where they really miss Ismail. She would be that express pace and that real point of difference for South Africa.

Another Kapp maiden concludes the first session and wow, that drop.

Everything else that happened seemed to pale into insignificance after that. Knight and Sciver both go to lunch on eight and that was a tough session for South Africa, whose bowling attack looked pretty unthreatening for much of the day.

A lovely start to Test cricket for Emma Lamb and two wickets to Anneke Bosch the highlights.

If you're looking for some entertainment during the lunch break, we've got you covered.

Alex Hartley
Former England bowler on BBC Test Match Special

This is a key final over for South Africa who will be looking to get a wicket on the stroke of lunch. Knight and Sciver have batted just to get through to lunch and we will probably see them play more shots afterwards.

If South Africa could have added a third wicket before lunch, that would have been an incredible effort.

They haven't done badly at all, but with a slow pitch, old ball and second-string bowling attack, to get Knight would've been huge.

Nat Sciver calmly sees out a maiden from Nadine de Klerk to just settle England down.

How long are we going to be talking about that Knight drop?