Proteas to play smart to combat England’s ‘Bazball’ at Lord’s

A lot has been said about England’s abrasive, high-octane new style of play called “Bazball” under new men at the helm — coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes.

England’s aggressive batting and bowling approach has helped them chase down big targets over the past two months to beat New Zealand and India, and the Proteas are next on their menu.

Speaking before the first of three Tests at Lord’s, SA coach Mark Boucher acknowledged England have been exciting recently, but said the Proteas will play a smart brand of cricket to combat that.

“We believe we have been playing a nice brand of cricket. We have had some tight Test series where we came out on top of late,” Boucher said.

“We have processes we will go through to have the result go our way, and I have always said we would like to be nice and smart. We want to play aggressive cricket, but you have to be smart, and nothing will change for us.”

Boucher said the series has been hyped up in the media but SA are focused on their preparations.

“I know this is an England vs SA series. There is always hype in the media and there are always things being said. But the bottom line is this game is between bat and ball and you have to make smart decisions at certain times of the game. We are focused on trying to do that from our side.

“England will probably try to do the same. They have a brand they want to play that is perfect for them and we will have to try finding ways to match it.”

The Proteas lost the warm-up match to England Lions by an innings and 56 runs.

Boucher said not too much should be read into that result.

“I have watched them on TV and it is quite an exciting brand of cricket. You need to have a few things to play that way, like conditions, and you also need to have the players, and they believe they have the players to play that way.

“This is all talk in the media. Come Wednesday it is about bat and ball and about playing situations the game gives to you the smart way. That’s exactly what we are looking to do.

“If we get into a situation where we are on top we hope to drive that advantage home, and if they get on top hopefully we can try to negate that and find a way to switch momentum,” he said.

“The warm-up game we played in Canterbury was exactly that. It was a warm-up game for us. We had certain things we wanted to get out of the game and we believe we got those.

“The result did not go our way and it is never great losing, but we are not looking too much into how they are playing. It is more about focusing on what we need to do to get ready for the Test series.”