Harmison relief at fine comeback

Harmison produced the ball of the day to oust the dangerous Hashim Amla

Steve Harmison savoured his return to Test action as his 2-49 helped to bowl out South Africa for 194 on day one.

"It's brilliant, what I've worked hard for," he said. "I've bowled a lot of overs this year but it gave me the confidence to run up and know my areas.

"When you lose a captain like Michael Vaughan you look at yourselves.

"There was one leader which was Kevin (Pietersen) but the rest of us tried to lift our games. It was a great team effort and a special day for Kevin."

Harmison said that the England players were determined to give Pietersen their full support on his first day in the job.

TMS: BLOG Although Pietersen will grab the headlines, it was the efforts of Harmison and Anderson in particular that deserve them BBC Sport's Jonathan Agnew

"You pretty much all have to be captain. We're all going to have to help him because he hasn't done the job before."

Looking ahead he said: "We've been in good positions before in the series so it's up to us now to nail this one home.

"If we have a full day's batting we'll be in a really strong position in this Test match."

And of the perennial question of his winter tour preparations, with only one warm-up match before the first Test in India, he said: "I'd love to think there's a future beyond this Test match but I'll have to work out where we go from here."

One thing was certain, the fast bowler will not be featuring in the one-day matches which follow the Test series.

"The one-dayers are still out of the question - I won't go back on the decision I've made," added the 29-year-old, who quit one-day international cricket after the Champions Trophy in 2006.