England unchanged for first South Africa test

By John Mehaffey

LONDON (Reuters) - England set a world record by naming an unchanged team on Wednesday for the sixth test in a row to meet South Africa in the opening match of a four-test series starting at Lord's on Thursday.

"Everyone's fit and we'll be playing the same team that played at Trent Bridge," captain Michael Vaughan told a news conference.

England completed a 2-0 series win over New Zealand at the Nottingham ground.

Vaughan missed the final part of his county Yorkshire's four-day match against Durham after stiffness and pain in his troubled right knee, which has required four operations.

He said on Wednesday the joint had been injected with a lubricant and he would be fully fit for Thursday's test.

"It's fine," he said. "It just needs monitoring. I played a four-day game and there was a little bit of aggravation towards the end of the game.

"It's no different to how we've managed it in the last year. It just needed a few days to have this lubricant put into the knee."

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff, who has not played test cricket since the final Ashes test in Australia early last year because of injury, practised with the England team at the indoor nets at Lord's as steady rain fell over the ground.