Before the series began, South Africa captain Dean Elgar was highly critical of the new aggressive and positive brand of Test match cricket England had been playing under the new captain and coach combination of Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
Elgar claimed the style of play, which has been dubbed 'Bazball', has no "longevity", could "go south very quickly" and challenged England to "do it against our seamers". Then, after South Africa lost a warm-up match by an innings and 56 runs to an England Lions side that racked up 672 at a run rate of 5.74, Elgar said he was "not going to entertain that phrase anymore" while head coach Mark Boucher joked "if you mention 'Bazball' you've got to have a tequila".
And while England's new method fell flat in the first Test at Lord's as they slumped to an innings defeat, they roared back at Old Trafford to draw level before emphatically winning the series at the Oval in the shortest completed Test match in England since 1912.
