None of the attending media nor Proteas head coach Mark Boucher wanted to say the term ‘Bazball,’ at his press conference on Monday.
Johannesburg — For whatever reason, none of the attending media nor Proteas head coach Mark Boucher wanted to say the term ‘Bazball,’ at his press conference on Monday.
There didn’t appear to be any particular reason — maybe like Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum — everyone has grown a bit tired of saying ‘Bazball’. So there was a lot of ‘I won’t say it’, ‘the way that England plays that won’t be mentioned’, or just plain, ‘England’s approach’. Well, there is no escaping it and whether McCullum likes it or not, the sobriquet seems to be here to stay, for now.
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It is worth remembering that South Africa too been quite successful in the Test arena of late, winning three out of the last four series the Proteas have played, and drawing the other.
“We’ve not given it a name; they’ve done that here,” Boucher smiled, when asked about his side’s successful methodology. “We believe we’ve been playing a nice brand of cricket and had some tight series, where we’ve come out on top of late.”
"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
Coming from behind to beat India and then doing so again to draw in New Zealand, reflects how the team, without doing anything flashy, has shown resourcefulness in finding a way to win when it matters.
Last week against the England Lions it didn’t matter, with South Africa suffering a big loss in a match that didn’t have first class status after the tourists requested to play 13 players in that match.
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Besides learning how to fetch the ball — as Boucher jokingly put it — the players got what they wanted out of the encounter.
“We’ve come out of the off-season, so our guys were all a bit rusty, so just for them to get out and have a bit of cricket (was important). It’s why we weren’t too worried about the result.
“The England Lions guys are smack bang in the middle of a season, and it was going to be tough for our guys to come straight out of winter, with no game time and perform straight away. There is no panic from our side.”
Hit the nets with the #Proteas 🇿🇦#ENGvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/PCc97GC0Eb
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) August 15, 2022
The Proteas got a taste of the new England style however, with the Lions scoring at nearly six an over in their innings.
“It’s an exciting brand of cricket,” Boucher said of England’s approach. “You need to have a few things in your favour to play that way; it’s been dry (in England) and their guys have really taken advantage of that. You also need the right players and they believe they have the players to play that way.
“It’s all talk at the moment, but come Wednesday it’s about bat and ball and playing situations smartly, that the game gives to you. If we get into a situation where we are on top then hopefully we can drive that advantage home.
“And if they get on top hopefully we can try to negate that and switch the momentum.”
