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

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.