Johannesburg — Mark Boucher said passion and emotion was running high in the Proteas camp, ahead of the first Test with England starting at Lord’s on Wednesday.
The venue has certainly evoked a lot of wonder in what is a relatively young Proteas team, some of whom, made a first visit to the sport’s traditional home for Sunday’s training session. “It’s a great occasion,” Boucher, who played there in two Tests in 1998 and 2003 said of playing at Lord’s.
“This is where legends are made. In the change-room you see all the names on the board. There are so many stories around those performances. There shouldn’t be a fear factor, it’s just about us as coaches, and as a coaching staff, giving guys certain tools to deal with the pressures and emotions that you will feel on the first morning. You can’t hide from it, they will be there, it’s a great feeling especially if you can overcome that and do well.”
Until the 2017 Test match, South Africa had an exceptional post-isolation record at Lord’s — winning four out of five Tests at the historic venue in St John’s Wood.
“We were very privileged to have a trip to the museum, and all the players were just in awe at what was around them, just watching the players reaction when walking into Lord’s there was a lot of passion and emotions were running high — in a good way,” said Boucher.
Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada and captain Dean Elgar — who also led the team five years ago at Lord’s when Faf du Plessis returned to SA for the birth of his child — are the only survivors from that 211-run defeat in 2017. The likes of Lungi Ngidi and Rassie van der Dussen would have played there in 2019 at the World Cup, while Simon Harmer has played there for Essex and Keegan Petersen got a feel for the place during a match for Durham earlier this year. Still a Test match is a tense occasion, particularly one at such a storied venue.
“The emotion of playing at the home of cricket — it is a different feeling, when you walk through those gates. That's not to say any other ground is not that special, but there is an extra sense of the specialness when you walk into Lord’s,” Boucher said.
Boucher explained that the team, in keeping with their philosophy to be frank and forthright with one another, had talked about what playing at Lord’s might be like. “We’ve got a nice environment where we are pretty open and honest about certain things, certain emotions and feelings the players might be going through, and that is something we have addressed,” he said.
“There are a lot of youngsters here, and even some of the older guys who have been here, were still looking at WG Grace’s gloves and going ‘I don’t know if I could wear those,’” Boucher mentioned about the team’s tour around the MCC museum which is located behind the Old Pavilion.
“They put on a nice little South African (display). We’ve been successful here, and maybe we can look at that and hopefully there are memories to be created, and they’d like to be a part of that. It’s a nice position for me as coach to be in, because you don’t have to get the boys worked up for this game, they’ll be there naturally.”
The Proteas at Lord’s (post isolation)
P 6 W4 D1 L1
1994 - SA 357 (K Wessels 105, G Kirsten 72) and 278/8 decl.
England 180 (A Donald 5/74) and 99.
SA won by 356 runs
1998 - SA 360 (J Rhodes 117, H Cronje 81) and 15/0
England 110 (A Donald 5/32) and 264 (N Hussain 105, A Stewart 56)
SA won by 10 wickets
2003 - England 173 (M Ntini 5/75) and 417 (A Flintoff 142, M Butcher 70, N Hussain 61. M Ntini 5/145)
SA 682/6 decl. (G Smith 259, G Kirsten 108, B Dippenaar 92, M Boucher 68)
SA won by an innings and 92 runs
2008 - England 593/8 decl. (K Pietersen 152, I Bell 199, S Broad 76, A Cook 60)
SA 247 (A Prince 101) and (follow-on) and 393/3 (G Smith 107, N Mckenzie 138, H Amla 104*)
Draw
2012 - SA 309 (Jp Duminy 61, V Philander 61) and 351 (H Amla 121)
England 315 (I Bell 58, J Bairstow 95) and 294 (J Trott 63, J Bairstow 54, M Prior 73. V Philander 5/30)
SA won by 51 runs
2017 - England 458 (J Root 190, B Stokes 56, Moeen Ali 87, S Broad 57*) and 233 (A Cook 69, J Bairstow 51)
SA 361 (D Elgar 54, T Bavuma 59, Q de Kock 51, V Philander 52) and 119 (Moeen Ali 6/53)