The Proteas will take the red-ball this week and face an English outfit that, under the leadership of Ben Stokes, will provide five days of full-on attacking cricket.
The South Africans had a horrible showing in the warm-up four-day match against the England Lions, the county’s A-team. The Proteas got off to a great start. However, they soon crumbled under the bazball style of play the English have adopted.
Bazball derived its name from Brendon McCullum’s nickname, who took over coaching duties of England’s national team in May this year.
The Kiwi was dubbed “Baz” because of his aggressive style of play. McCullum’s influence has payed-off, for now. The English side only played three Tests under the former New Zealand International, in a series against the coach’s former team. All three tests ended in comfortable victories for England.
Focus 🇿🇦#ENGvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/iqo3JuMvKJ
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) August 16, 2022
Smart cricket > Aggressive cricket
Proteas coach, Mark Boucher is not all too concerned with what is to come, or with what transpired in Canterbury last week.
“We believe that we’ve been playing a nice brand of cricket,” said Boucher.
1⃣ day to go 🏏#ENGvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/9CCytb5HOk
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) August 16, 2022
“England has their brand they want to play. We have to try and match it on the day and find ways to negate that.”
“We’ve had some tight series where we’ve come out on top of late, and nothing changes for us. We have processes we go through in order to try and get the results going our way. We like to be nice and smart, and we want to play aggressive cricket but you have to be smart with regards to that.”
"There are memories to be created at this venue." – #Proteas head coach Mark Boucher speaks about the specialness of Lord's 🏏#ENGvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/X6yD2IZnkV
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) August 15, 2022
The Proteas have been inconsistent in the last couple of series over all three formats. Most of the time they get the job done in terms of winning the series. However, stamping down their authority throughout should be the main priority.
1⃣ day to go 🏏#ENGvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/9CCytb5HOk
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) August 16, 2022
The first ball of the series will be bowled at Noon on Wednesday afternoon.
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