By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent

The imposing Smith will look to take his team to an invincible position

Michael Vaughan's first day as England's captain could not have been worse.

His batsmen produced their most insipid performance for some time in being bowled out for 173, and then Nasser Hussain - of all people - dropped a straight-forward chance offered by Graeme Smith when he had scored only eight.

By the close, South Africa were already in touching distance of England's inadequate total and Smith was on 80.

It was one of those tosses that captains prefer to lose. The atmosphere at Lord's was heavy and cloud cover was present all day.

Smith, keen to take the initiative, decided to put England in to bat while Vaughan revealed that he would have chosen to bat first anyway.

The pitch was slow, there was absolutely no movement in the air, but just occasionally the ball nipped off the seam - which is perfectly permissible on the opening morning of a Test match.

However, the top seven batsmen were all guilty of contributing to their downfalls, and had it not been for the partnership of 55 between Darren Gough and James Anderson for the last wicket - easily the biggest stand of the innings - England might not have reached 120.

It is typical of cricket that a tantalising sub-plot brought Vaughan and Hussain to the crease together.

Marcus Trescothick and Mark Butcher had already gone with the score on 35, and Hussain received a warm welcome from the Lord's crowd that applauded him all the way from the pavilion to the middle.

The former captain and his successor added 38 before Hussain drove expansively and lost his off stump for 14.

Four balls later Anthony McGrath was caught at mid off for four and when Vaughan was caught on the long leg boundary for 33 in the next over, England were 85-5 and in deep trouble.

The chance went down and Hussain looked lost

Alec Stewart was caught at square leg in the first over after lunch and, in no time, England were 118-9.

After Gough and Anderson showed some welcome resistance, it was the turn of England's bowlers to try to make amends for their ghastly exhibition at Edgbaston.

As early as the fourth over, Smith drove Anderson firmly but at waist height to Hussain at cover point.

Down it went, and as the crowd groaned in disbelief, Hussain looked lost.

In such a precarious and emotional state of mind, lapses like that might well speed his exit from the game.

Smith and Herschelle Gibbs put on 133 for the first wicket before Steve Harmison, bowling with welcome pace and urgency, induced Gibbs to chop the ball into his stumps for 49.

Smith received a nasty blow on the hand from Andrew Flintoff, but the imposing figure of the South African captain will return in the morning, aiming to lead his team to an invincible position.