South Africa have taken a 1-0 lead in their three match Test series against England courtesy of a victory by an innings and 12 runs at The Oval this afternoon.

Hosting England headed into the final day 102-4, which was still 150 runs short of forcing the South Africans back into bat for a second innings.

That scenario left the Proteas requiring six wickets before the close of play to record the win.

England's reply started poorly, with Ravi Bopara only managing to add seven runs to his overnight score of 15 before he dragged a wide ball from Dale Steyn onto his middle stump.

That brought Matt Prior to the crease, who along with Ian Bell guided the home team to 177-5 at the lunch break.

The batting pair continued to frustrate the South African bowling unit after the resumption as Bell went past 50 with England on 200 runs.

However, just three runs later Prior attempted to sweep away a spinning delivery from Imran Tahir which Jacques Kallis collected cleanly in the slips to leave England's tail exposed.

Bell was next to fall on 55 when he edged Steyn's delivery to Kallis, who once again grasped the ball to leave the world's number one side 210-7.

Stuart Broad, who had replaced Bell at the crease, went without troubling the scorers when he gloved Steyn's bouncer into the hands of AB de Villiers. Steyn then completed his five-for moments later when Graeme Swann lofted his delivery to Alviro Petersen.

Tim Bresnan and James Anderson provided some resistance as England looked tried to put South Africa back into bat. However, Anderson was eventually dismissed by Tahir lbw for two runs as England were bowled out for 220.

The two teams will now meet at Headingley next Thursday.