England vs South Africa Live cricket score and ball by ball commentary of 1st Test at Lord's

Playing XI: South Africa: Dean Elgar(c), Sarel Erwee, Keegan Petersen, Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne(wk), Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje

England: Alex Lees, Zak Crawley, Ollie Pope, Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes(c), Ben Foakes(wk), Stuart Broad, Matty Potts, James Anderson, Jack Leach

Toss | South Africa won the toss and chose to field first.

Another series, another continued chatter about Bazball. So much that Dean Elgar had to interject after a while by saying, "With all due respect I'm not going to entertain that anymore," on Tuesday. "We've chatted about it long and hard. I just want to crack on with the cricket. The game deserves that respect. Mud-slinging is a thing of the past for me. We're not going to go back and forth anymore about that."

To add to the conundrum, the head coach Mark Boucher not only denied talking about it but declared a punishment of one tequila shot for those who utter the word.

For Ben Stokes, Brendon McCullum, and England, the team behind the B - word, it is time to focus on cricket, and let the bat and the ball do the talking.

"The opposition seem to be doing a lot of talking at the moment about it. We don't really speak about it that much. 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 the ball. Whoever plays best over a Test match is more than likely to win. We don't dive into it too much, but we're happy for Dean [Elgar] and the South African team to keep saying they're not interested but then also keep talking about it," Stokes said.

The three-match Test series is an opportunity for England to pull off a fifth consecutive win in the format under the new coach-captain regime. South Africa are looking to chalk up a fifth successive series without defeat under Elgar.

For South Africa, it is a daunting task considering only three members of their squad have played Tests in England before - the captain himself, Elgar, Keshav Maharaj, and Kagiso Rabada. Temba Bavuma missed out due to an elbow injury.

Also, South Africa are the current table topper for the World Test Championship. This might add to their confidence, or also add to the pressure to maintain themselves there. England are a distant seventh on the table.  Their recent form has been buzzing around the cricket world from east to west, but it is highly unlikely for them to reach one of the top two positions in this cycle.

After the baking heat a couple of weeks ago, the balmy weather is back in London which means the usual order of things has been restored. Rain on Tuesday wouldn't have helped either camps in deciding their playing XI.

However, Test matches are never a dull affair and the series is expected to be a cracking contest.

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