BEN STOKES was crushed in defeat, his first since becoming England captain. But he maintained that he would not throw out the toys.

It is also not possible to imagine England under Stokes or Brendon McCullum having second thoughts about the aggressive style they have.

Bazball will be there for the duration of England's team management. Stokes thought his players weren't aggressive enough at Lord's in the first Test.

After his team was wiped out by 12 runs and an innings in just 171.5 overs, it's quite a feat. This is less than two days of play.

Stokes stated: "The message from Baz and me will be...did you commit to everything the same way that we committed to the four first Tests of the summer?"

"If everyone can agree that 100 percent is possible, but we didn't do it, then everything is fine. We will move on to the next Test match.

"No matter what we tried to throw at South Africa, be it batting or bowling - they seem to have the ability to counteract. They deserve a lot of credit.

"It was an off-game for us, and that's perfectly fine. It's not something that I'm going throw our toys out the pram.

"I enjoy riding the wave of success and failure. There are two more Tests. We'll be one step behind South Africa if we don't let this go for too long. We should be one step ahead.

This is undoubtedly a devastating blow to the momentum that was built in the first half with four consecutive wins over New Zealand, India and New Zealand.

The way they collapsed in both innings was alarming, regardless of how fast the Proteas' pace attack.

It would be wrong to call it a Bazball balls up. It is a simple fact that England lost to a stronger team, and would have lost regardless of their tactics.

While there were some poor shots (Alex Lees in the first and Zak Crawley the second), it was generally a case of aggressiveness. However, England's batsmen were all dismissed by top-class cricket.

Anrich Nortje bowled a string thunderbolts, and Jonny Bairstow and Alex Lees were caught behind in ten balls.

They were able to escape legally with speed and skill, and Foakes was able to exploit a wariness towards the hardball steaming towards Foakes.

It was evident that England's early-summer victories were built on Bairstow’s five bizarre innings and Joe Root's brilliance.

They scored only 32 runs together here, and no other England batsman could fill the void. Ollie Pope's score of 73 in the first innings was however the joint highest score in the match.

England started their second innings with 161 runs in deficit. Proteas skipper Dean Elgar made a masterstroke and introduced left-arm spinner Keshav Mahraj for the eighth over. He prompted Pope and Crawley to be removed.

Crawley was caught trying to sweep Maharaj's third balls, but he seemed certain to retain his position at the top of order for the Second Test at Old Trafford next week, despite his confidence and form falling apart.

Bazball's philosophy encourages players to go to any lengths to win, sometimes beyond logic and reason.

Root was caught in slips as he prodded at the ball with his hard hands. Root would normally have used a gentler touch to allow the ball bounce before it reached the fielder.

Stuart Broad had a lot of fun with 35 balls from 29 balls. He'd previously caught a stunning, one-handed catch at the mid-on after the third delivery.

Stokes was unable to produce another miracle single-handedly and died at the mid-wicket boundary.

McCullum insists that there is still work to be done, but it's not possible to go from a great team to one that is mediocre in a matter of hours. We won't react too quickly.

"We said it at the beginning, you need to be ready for the ride. We will come back stronger. Stokesy and my firm beliefs about the team and the direction it should go are clear. Only now is the time to improve a few of these areas.

"The conditions weren't ideal for us, but we had to adapt to the pressure. We weren't able to absorb the pressure as well we wanted."

South Africa was probably more prepared than England due to the erratic schedule. Broad and Jimmy Anderson had not bowled since July 4, which prevented them from entering the match.

Elgar said, "I didn’t wake up this morning expecting that I would be giving a press conference before 5 o’clock in the morning. That's for certain." Because I know the dangers of complacency in international sport, I will make sure we don’t get into a comfort zone.