Joe Root could not have asked for a better start to life as England Test captain as his side beat South Africa by 211 runs in the opener at Lord's.
Moeen Ali inspired England to victory inside four days, taking career-best figures of six for 53 to help dismiss the Proteas for just 119, in Root's first match since replacing Alastair Cook as skipper.
The Yorkshireman told Sky Sports: "It is a great start.
"Everything I asked the lads this week they did. They responded to all the challenges.
"Throughout the whole game everyone contributed at some point along the way. I think that is a really pleasing sign that the whole team has played a big part in this win.
"It is great to go to Trent Bridge 1-0 up."
Root led from the front on the opening day after winning the toss, helping England recover from 76 for four with a brilliant 190.
That provided England with the platform to reach 458 all out and put the pressure on the tourists.
"It is obviously nice," Root added. "Monkey off the back to get one early. We had some vital partnerships and the lads responded to what was asked of them."
Moeen beat Root to be named man of the match after following a first-innings 87 with a 10-wicket haul in the Test.
"It was a great game for myself, and the team," he said. "We won the game and I am very happy."
Katherine Brunt, meanwhile, led the way as England recorded a first Women's World Cup victory over Australia since 1993 in a dramatic finale at Bristol.
Brunt blasted an unbeaten 45 in a seventh-wicket partnership of 85 with Jenny Gunn as her side set the defending champions 260 to win, and then took two for 42 and held on to a crucial catch in the final over to help England edge home by just three runs. The victory takes England to the top of the group.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here