By Tim Wigmore
London: Ben Stokes insists England will not be “throwing our toys out of the pram” and abandoning their “Bazball” approach after crashing to an innings defeat in the first Test.
England were bowled out for just 149 on the third day at Lord’s as they lost to South Africa by an innings and 12 runs, ending a sequence of four consecutive victories this summer. Former England captain Michael Vaughan, writing in the Telegraph Sport, urged Stokes and his side to not “be a one-trick pony” and “become too predictable”.
After being bowled out in just 37.4 overs in their second innings, England lost all 20 wickets in the match in 82.4 overs – the equivalent of less than a day’s play. Overall in the Test, England faced the seventh fewest deliveries of any defeat in their Test history. But while Stokes, the captain, admitted that England had performed at well below their best, he insisted that they would not change their ultra-aggressive approach – dubbed “Bazball” – that he and head coach Brendon McCullum have advocated in the rest of the series.
“It was an off game for us, and that’s absolutely fine,” Stokes said. “We know we haven’t performed anywhere near to what we can.
England’s Matthew Potts is bowled by South Africa’s Marco Jansen.Credit:AP
“It’s not something I’m going to be throwing our toys out of the pram over. The message for me and Baz upstairs will be, did we commit to everything the way we committed to the first four Tests of the summer? If everyone can say, yes, 100 per cent, we just didn’t execute, then things are good. We’ll move on to the next Test match, and go out there and try to win.
“I’m really trying to get home that I don’t want this team to dive too much into the results of games. If you play good or bad cricket, that’s going to determine the result. If you fixate too much on the result, you get ahead of yourselves. Did we go out there and really believe what we know worked for us?”
Stokes said that England would draw on their victories earlier in the summer in the build-up to the second Test, which begins at Old Trafford next Thursday.
“We’ve got a certain way we want to play. We know we can be an incredibly hard team to play against if we execute that; hard to beat. We can’t be great every day. This week was just off for us. Everyone’s so aligned in the dressing room, from the management to the players, about how we operate. Captains and coaches are always going to get criticised.
“You have to live in the moment and ride the wave, whether that be of success or failure. We’ve got two games left. If we hold on to this for too long, and carry baggage into the next game, we’re already one step behind South Africa. I want us to be a team where we’re one step ahead.”
Anrich Nortje celebrates with Dean Elgar after taking the wicket of Jonny Bairstow.Credit:Getty Images
England’s players had minimal first-class cricket in the build-up to the Test, with no County Championship cricket played since July 28 because of the Hundred. But Stokes refused to use scheduling as an excuse.
“Five weeks away for this group playing different formats for different teams is obviously not ideal, but we’ve all been playing professional cricket for a number of years,” he said. “We know how to play cricket. If you start looking at it that way, we don’t want to create an excuses-based culture. South Africa just out-performed us.”
Dean Elgar, South Africa’s captain, hailed his side after the victory cemented their place at the top of the World Test Championship.
“We haven’t left a stone unturned and hopefully we don’t go into our comfort zone,” he said. “It’s been a pretty special journey so far and hopefully it continues getting stronger.
“As a playing group it’s a special bunch and we play b—– good cricket when we’re playing well.”
Telegraph, London
