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Andrew Strauss thinks England failed to wrestle momentum against South Africa

image-l70sjv2qSouth Africa secured a thumping victory against England (Twitter)

Andrew Strauss, Chair of the ECB's Performance Cricket Committee has reckoned that England could not display their fighting spirit against South Africa in the first fixture of the bilateral Test series. 

On the third day (19 August) of the Test match, South Africa secured a big victory by an innings and 12 runs to begin the series on a dominating note. 

It was the first defeat for the Three Lions in the ongoing 2022 Summer. Ahead of this series, they secured four successive red-ball victories against teams like New Zealand and India. 

It took less than 38 overs for the visitors to bundle out England for a score of 149 in the second innings. 

Strauss thinks it was quite easy for the rampant Proteas team to run down the English batting line-up. 

"There was this irresistible momentum behind and England couldn't seem to find a way to stem it. There was certainly no digging in and trying to gradually wrestle momentum. Before you knew it, it was all over," said Strauss. 

"It was high quality from South Africa against an England team that were either undercooked or overconfident or just didn't hit its straps."

Strauss outlines England's worries in red-ball format

The former English batter stated that the opener Zak Crawley has not been able to adapt to the challenges posed by the opposition bowlers.  He highlighted the fact of Crawley having a dismal average of below 17 in 10 red-ball innings of 2022 Summer. 

The 45-year-old was impressed by the wicket-taking abilities of Proteas pacers, Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje. In this regard, he felt the absence of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, who have been attacking with their mindset. 

Strauss termed the current English pace attack comprising Stuart Broad and James Anderson as one-dimensional. 

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