Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock, as inseparable as Trueman and Statham, blasted a huge hole in English aspirations at the Wanderers yesterday.

Donald took six for 53, the third-best figures of a career awash with great performances, and Pollock, his gangly support in theory but currently rated the best fast bowler on the planet, four for 16 as England were shot out in three hours for just 122 as the ball bounced, seamed and swung wickedly under leaden skies.

In reply, South Africa had reached 64 for the loss of Gary Kirsten to Allan Mullally before bad light ended play early with Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis at the crease.

Only the South Africans themselves have made fewer on this ground and that the England total represented a good score in the circumstances may be hard to comprehend. But it came on the back of the loss of their first four wickets, senior batsman and all England captains past and present, for two runs before the match was three overs old.

Yet England recovered and, pleasingly, it was the new kids on the chopping-block who managed it. It would be hard to imagine a more fiery baptism for Michael Vaughan and Chris Adams than these fast bowlers with the taste of blood.

But Adams, staying true to his instincts as he promised he would, made 16, adding 32 with Vaughan, and then Vaughan and Andy Flintoff, another youngblood bristling with uncomplicated aggression, added 57 for the sixth wicket. as Donald and Pollock were rested.

Vaughan was caught at the wicket off the inside edge for a composed 33 - constructed over two hours at the crease with some tidy driving when allowed the luxury - when the pair returned for more sport. Then Flintoff, faced with the tail, followed soon after for 38, an innings that contained seven fours.

The other debutant Gavin Hamilton, accompanied to the crease by a rendition of Flower of Scotland, was less fortunate, caught at third slip for nought.

Also going for ducks were three of the four players whose experience provides the backbone to the England order - Mike Atherton, Mark Butcher, Nasser Hussain and Alec Stewart.

For once, though, England can with justification claim mitigating circumstances, for the day was played out on a pitch that proved disgracefully damp for the start of a Test. The key came with the toss, and the smile on the normally inscrutable face of the South African captain Hansie Cronje as Hussain called wrongly already told a story.

Why the surface should be so is a mystery. But on Wednesday the groundsman, Chris Scott, insisted that he had not watered it since Saturday and that it was even then close to dry. One hesitates to cast doubt on his word. But between Monday and the Test match eve, the pitch had darkened visibly, while Donald's call for sawdust in the opening overs suggested a soggy digestive rather than a cream cracker. This would not have been a fair pitch whoever won the toss.