England vs South Africa: 'Bazball' finds no answer to Proteas' high-quality pace attack at Lord's

London: Losing by an innings and 12 runs before Tea on the third day – welcome back England’s Test team, we’ve missed you.

It is perhaps tempting to say ‘live by Bazball, die by Bazball’ but truthfully that would be doing South Africa a disservice, the tourists managing to play England off the hallowed park and wrapping up the most comprehensive of victories in under six sessions.

As much as anything, this was a win driven by the excellence of South Africa’s fast bowling quartet, from the sublime Kagiso Rabada to the fearsome Anrich Nortje, England had very few answers to the high-quality pace attack they were confronted by.

Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow had looked in untouchable form earlier in the English summer, the fulcrum on which four remarkable back-to-back Test victories were built, here back again at Lord’s they managed just 32 runs in the Test between them.

From the moment they won the toss and put England into bat, South Africa were on top in this match and never once really looked like ceding control, generously helping to alleviate any concerns about fixture overcrowding by ensuring players on both sides got an extra two days rest ahead of next week’s Old Trafford Test.

Perhaps perversely for a match in which they managed only 314 runs in total and just one of their batsmen made it past 50, it was really with the ball where England disappointed most – unable to match either the skill or ferocity displayed by their opponents.

In conditions that served to supercharge the excellence of South Africa’s bowlers, any side would have done well to resist the first innings onslaught that England’s batsmen faced, and while 165 all out is far from the ideal start to any match – it was not in truth when the Test really slipped from their grasp.

Against a visiting batting lineup short on experience in English conditions, England’s bowlers would and should you imagine have backed themselves to get their side back into the game but despite the vast experience available to them, bowled naively – in particular once again to the tail– and as South Africa were allowed to build a lead that stretched into three figures, the game not so much slipped through their fingers as thudded to the floor and rapidly began to roll away from them.

It is not you expect a mistake they will repeat when these sides meet again in Manchester next week, a match that following this drubbing at Lord’s will see the pre-match expectations of these sides very much reversed. South Africa can no longer channel the idea of written off underdogs with a point to prove, after this humiliation that position is very much England’s to take, and one you imagine that gels well with the general new ethos of Ben Stokes’ side – after all the early highs of ‘Bazball’ were all forged from positions of adversity.

Despite the delirium of those four Test wins earlier in the summer, this was a day that England supporters ultimately knew would be coming before too long, the real intrigue now comes in how they react. Fortunately for cricket fans everywhere, we won’t have to wait long to find out.

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