England's openers overcame South Africa's pace attack to dominate the opening session of the first Test at Lord's.

Put into bat in seamer-friendly conditions, an England line-up which has not made a first-innings total in excess of 400 for 12 successive Tests was expected to struggle on the first morning.

Despite South African captain Graeme Smith shuffling his pace battery in an attempt to make a breakthrough, England battled through to 71 without loss at lunch with few alarms for Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook.

The crucial four-Test series was expected to be decided by the battle between England's misfiring top order and an attack featuring the hostility of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and the experience of Makhaya Ntini.

Instead of being intimidated by South Africa's pace attack, however, England built on a cautious start as they attempted to end their long run without a major first-innings total.

It took 19 balls before Essex left-hander Cook claimed the first run of the series, a push into the off-side for a single off Ntini to finally get England under way.

Both Cook and Strauss were content to leave anything which did not threaten their stumps during the early stages, prompting South Africa to begin the bowling changes.

Pace spearhead Dale Steyn was replaced after only three overs from the Nursery End by Morne Morkel, whose first ball of the series was timed at 90mph although his accuracy was lacking.

Steyn did not return to the attack until four overs before lunch when he was used at the Pavilion End and in the interim, captain Smith tried Morkel, Ntini and all-rounder Jacques Kallis in a desperate attempt to find the breakthrough.

Kallis caused the most problems during a six-over spell from the Nursery End which cost just 12 runs and was unfortunate not to claim Cook's wicket in his third over.

Cook had moved to 19 when he attempted to pull a short delivery which clipped his bottom edge and was heading for his stumps until the ball spun wide, and two balls later he edged short of third slip.

Once Kallis was replaced in the attack, both batsmen settled into a rhythm with Strauss progressing to an unbeaten 26 while Cook was unbeaten on 39.