England vs South Africa LIVE: Cricket rating from first Test at Lord’s as Dean Elgar elects to bowl

There hasn’t been plenty of love misplaced between the captains Ben Stokes and Dean Elgar within the build-up to this one, and also you get the sense that is going to be a flamable sequence.

“The opposition seem to be doing a lot of the talking at the moment about it,” Stokes informed reporters on Tuesday. “We just concentrate on what we do. We’ve got a style of play, they’ve got a style of play.

“At the end of the day, it’s bat against ball and whoever plays best over a Test match is most likely to win.

“For me, it’s just about reiterating the points that we were making at the start of the summer – our mindset, attitude and everything like that – about how we go out and play our cricket.”

South Africa quick bowler Kagiso Rabada is match for the primary Test, and is “100 per cent”, says captain Dean Elgar.

Rabada is a large determine within the South African seam assault and his loss can be an enormous blow as he battles again from an ankle drawback sustained within the Twenty20 International sequence between the edges late final month.

Ben Stokes thows the coin within the air, Dean Elgar calls heads, and it’s heads. He chooses to bowl first – Stokes seems to be a bit stunned by that – and meaning England will in all probability not be doing any fourth-innings chasing right here at Lord’s this week.

“It’s nothing to do with what they’ve done in the past, it’s more to do with conditions overhead,” says Elgar with a smile.

Dean Elgar has not held again with the anti-Bazball rhetoric within the build-up to this Test match.

The South Africa captain tried to finish the “mud-slinging” over England’s latest thrilling strategy to Test cricket earlier than he backtracked when pondering how Bazball would look when it goes flawed.

A daring model of cricket with a constructive strategy on the forefront of every thing has been rapidly carried out by new red-ball captain Ben Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum, which noticed the time period ‘Bazball’ coined, however Elgar has repeatedly poked enjoyable on the philosophy in latest weeks.

He initially regarded to chill tensions on the eve of the primary Test earlier than the 35-year-old promised the vacationers weren’t right here to play soft-natured cricket.

“With all due respect I am really not going to entertain that (Bazball) anymore. We have chatted about it long and hard. I just want to crack on with the cricket,” Elgar mentioned.

“I think the game deserves that respect and mud-slinging is now a thing of the past for me. We are not going to go back and forth any more around that.

“What they (England) did, the conditions were pretty nice to bat in during those specific Tests.

“They did really unique things around that time, those months ago, chasing the scores they did and it was something where I was also blown away with. It was pretty impressive.

“But I would like to think the bowlers we have, even if the wickets are pretty flat, I think we have covered our bases with regards to our bowling unit and we can bowl them out even if they are chasing.

“I am pretty confident because we have done it in the past. It might be hard work for us but this is what we are here to do. We are not here to play soft-natured cricket, we want it hard and really tough and hopefully the results go our way.”

Lord’s will flip ‘Red for Ruth’ on Thursday in recognition of the Ruth Strauss Foundation.

The former England captain Sir Andrew Strauss’s spouse died from lung most cancers in December 2018, aged 46. Strauss, whose two sons Sam and Luca had been younger youngsters on the time of Ruth’s sickness and demise, has since arrange the muse to help households as they put together for grief and bereavement.

Red for Ruth has turn into an annual occasion wherein gamers put on vibrant purple caps and blazers and the house of cricket is remodeled in color, with spectactors inspired to put on purple too. This summer time it falls on the second day of this Test match with South Africa.

Groundstaff put together for the beginning of day one:

It is dry proper now at Lord’s and appears promising for some play this morning, though showers and thunderstorms are forecast later within the day.

Mark Butcher’s evaluation of the pitch suggests there’s a bit inexperienced on the wicket and the potential for some uneven bounce, however maybe extra necessary this morning is the cloud cowl above and humidity within the air. It seems to be like good bowling circumstances, and given Ben Stokes’ new philosophy on the helm, England are certain to take the ball in hand ought to they win the toss.

Dean Elgar will fancy difficult England’s ‘Bazball’ strategy and can in all probability need to have a bat, so this coin toss could possibly be tutorial.

England’s new ultra-aggressive strategy has filtered down, with the Lions enjoying in the identical method in thrashing South Africa in Canterbury final week.

Centuries by Harry Brook and Ben Duckett, plus Dan Lawrence’s run-a-ball 97, noticed the Lions put up 672 and win by an innings and 56 runs within the four-day match.

Ollie Robinson and Craig Overton impressed with the ball however England’s solely change from the win over India is that fit-again Ben Foakes is again behind the stumps instead of Sam Billings.

But Stokes added: “We have a certain type of way of playing and everyone else needs to know that who is trying to push to get in this England team.

“There’s perhaps more excitement than normal (about playing for the Lions) because I think you’ve been able to really express yourself in the way that you feel like you’ve always wanted to, but not felt like you can because you’ll get a slap on the wrist for playing a stupid shot. Well you’re not going to get that in our team here.

“You see the likes of Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Harry Brook, those guys are seriously excelling at the moment with the way we want guys to play.”

While Brook specifically is knocking on the door, Stokes’ religion in opener Zak Crawley stays unwavering.

The Kent batter averages 17.75 in eight Test innings this summer time however earned reward from his captain for his contribution of 46 in a century stand for the primary wicket with Alex Lees that kick-started England’s glorious chase of 378 to beat India final month.

“Him and Leesy were the main reason why we won,” Stokes insisted.

“Hand on heart I can say that was the most pleasing thing to me over those four or five weeks, that opening partnership at Edgbaston. To see Zak go out and still play in such a selfless manner.

“When you look at it from my point of view, I think you can see why these guys are getting the backing from me. They’re buying into what we’re doing and it’s not about them, the bigger picture is about winning the game.”

There has been plenty of discuss England’s front-foot fashion within the build-up, however Ben Stokes has promised England is not going to change their new daring and aggressive strategy to Test cricket irrespective of the problem in entrance of them.

After 4 thrilling victories in opposition to New Zealand and India earlier this summer time, South Africa are the subsequent opponent attempting to burst the hosts’ bubble.

Since red-ball captain Stokes and new head coach Brendon McCullum took over, England have produced exhilarating cricket the place data have tumbled with 378 chased down at Edgbaston final month.

It has resulted within the playful time period ‘Bazball’ being coined however outsiders like Steve Smith and Dean Elgar have solid doubt over the longevity of a philosophy which has remodeled the best way the longest format is seen once more within the UK.

Lord’s is the venue for Wednesday’s opening Test of a three-match sequence and Stokes is adamant even when his group bat first, having chased for his or her victories in 2022, it is not going to make a distinction.

“No matter what conditions we have, we’ve got our way of playing and we’re going to stick to that. We’ll adapt to situations, but we’ll always go out with the same mindset that you’ve seen over the last four games,” he mentioned.

“We’ve said if we have to chase down 400 in 60 overs on day five, we’ll try and do it, but it’s the same mindset with the ball. If we’ve got 40 overs to bowl a team out on day five, we’ll be doing everything that we can to do that and not just hope it happens.

“One of my desires as captain, away from the cricket and results, was how can we capture the imagination of the English followers again?

“I still firmly believe that if we had walked away on the wrong side of those games and not come away with a win, especially the Trent Bridge game if we hadn’t chased those (299) runs down, the people there and watching on TV would obviously have been disappointed with the result but they would have been excited with what they’d seen and would have wanted to come watch us.

“We would have got their support even if we hadn’t won, which is a very rare thing to do as a sporting team that you lose but you gain more fans and excitement out of the way you play, so honestly if we’d lost 4-0, I wouldn’t be sitting here changing the way I ask the lads to play.”

Ben Stokes might need to unfold the gospel of “Bazball” and alter what the world believes about Test cricket, however he is not going to discover a disciple in South Africa captain Dean Elgar.

Elgar is a straight-laced, hard-nosed cricketer nearly from one other period, stern and stoic like a person who’s by no means been hugged, whose grafting technique couldn’t be extra at odds with England’s showboating summer time. Where Stokes sees an obligation to entertain, Elgar sees solely obligation. England and South Africa meet on Wednesday at Lord’s for the primary of a three-Test sequence, and if the pre-match discourse gives a glimpse of what’s to come back, it’s going to be a confrontational, flamable affair.

“I’ve got absolutely no interest in the style they’ve played,” Elgar mentioned this week of England’s transformation beneath new coach Brendon McCullum, earlier than happening to debate it in some element. Elgar predicted England shall be left with “egg on their faces” by their gung-ho strategy and dared Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and co to tackle South Africa’s formidable bowling assault.