ENG vs SA, 1st Test: South Africa outplays Bazball effect, defeats hosts by an innings and 12 runs

ENG vs SA: Ending the newly earned dominance in style, that is how we can sum up South Africa’s performance in the first Test match which concluded in Lord’s. With loads of talks going on around England’s dominant gameplay and the effect of Bazball, a term that has taken the cricketing world by storm, Dean Elgar and co. had the calm and composure in them to brace the English challenge and combat them in the best way possible. With Mark Boucher writing off all the possibilities of being intimidated by Bazball, the members of the South African Test team have lived up to the expectations of their head coach.

Things did not go down well with England’s Test captain Ben Stokes who addressed the issue as white noise and laid emphasis on focussing on the game of cricket. Till this point in time, England had defeated New Zealand by a margin of 3-0 and also defeated the mighty Indian team in a one-off Test match. The duo of McCullum and Stokes were undefeated till this time, but as of now Elgar and co. have halted their victory parade.

Proteas captain Dean Elgar won the toss and decided to field first in the series opener. Banking on the quality of bowlers like Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, and Anrich Nortje, the visitors were pretty confident that they wouldn’t let the English batsmen take off and they executed their plans pretty well. Apart from Ollie Pope who scored 73 off 102 deliveries in the first innings, no other English batter could weather the Proteas storm as they bundled out for 165. Banking on the situation, South Africa batted pretty decently. Skipper Elgar scored a sublime 47 off 81 deliveries and was joined by Sarel Erwee who scored a gritty 73 off 146 deliveries. Marco Jansen too made some handy contributions with the bat and scored 48 off 79 deliveries. The visitors amassed a total of 326 runs which kept the hosts on the backfoot.

Things did not change for England in the second innings either. Alex Lees tried to steady the English ship by scoring 35 off 83 deliveries but had no support from either end as wickets kept on tumbling. The combination of Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, and Marco Jansen wreaked havoc on the hosts and as a result, they lost the match by an innings and 12 runs.

With South Africa going 1-0 up in the series and England have a job at their hands to regain their dominant form back before they turn up for the second Test match.

England Squad:

Ben Stokes(C), James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Harry Brook, Zak Crawley, Ben Foakes (Wk), Jack Leach, Alex Lees, Craig Overton, Matthew Potts, Ollie Pope, Ollie Robbinson

South Africa Squad:
Dean Elgar (c), Sarel Erwee, Marco Jansen, Simon Harmer, Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Duanne Olivier, Keegan Petersen, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Lutho Sipamla, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Khaya Zondo, Glenton Stuurman

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