England’s “Bazball” tactics did not work against South Africa, who stunned the hosts to win the first Test by a comfortable margin of an innings and 12 runs at Lord’s on Friday.

The Proteas completed the win inside three days to go 1-0 up in the three-match series. England were skittled out for 149 in the second innings after their first innings effort was a similarly poor 165.

It proved to be an emphatic triumph for South Africa’s bowling attack, who nullified the threat of England’s attacking ‘Bazball’ batting approach. South Africa batted much better than their hosts as they build a 161-run first innings lead before dismissing England in only 37.4 overs in the second innings. Anrich Nortje took three wickets in the space of 10 balls to rip through the heart of the home batting. He removed Jonny Bairstow (18 runs), opener Alex Lees (35) and Ben Foakes (0) in quick succession and returned figures of 3/47.

He was ably backed up by fellow quicks Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada while spinner Keshav Maharaj proved a surprisingly successfully early inclusion into the attack, taking the first two wickets before lunch with Zak Crawley (13) and Ollie Pope (5) both trapped leg before wicket. It was another failure for under-pressure Crawley, who was the first to fall for 13 and faces the axe for the next test at Old Trafford.

Joe Root was the first to go after lunch as he edged Ngidi to slip for six runs, followed by Nortje’s quick trio of scalps as South Africa took a firm grip on the game. But England captain Ben Stokes and Stuart Broad took on the bowlers in a ‘Bazball’ cameo to score 55 runs off 45 balls for the seventh wicket to offer hopes of a home fightback before Broad was snagged by Rabada for a quickfire 35.

Jansen then castled Matthew Potts for a single run before Stokes (20) hit Rabada down the throat of Maharaj on the boundary to end any slim hopes for the hosts. South Africa had begun the day on 289/7 in response to England’s first innings tally of 165 and batted for the first hour on Friday before being bowled out for 326 in their first innings.

Nortje scored an unbeaten 28 not out off 42 balls as he dominated a 29-run partnership for the ninth wicket with Jansen, who was dismissed for 48. Rabada was out third ball of the day as he pulled the ball leg side, only for Broad to pluck it one-handed out of the air for a brilliant catch.

(Written with inputs from Reuters)