Six-star Markram not fazed by England Lions' 'Bazball' approach in tour game

Proteas batter Aiden Markram, who shone with the ball, was far from surprised at how the England Lions batting group came after them in their tour game in Canterbury.

Markram, who's pretty happy to function in his primary trade as a batter, surprised all and sundry with his 6/91 in the England Lions' innings of 672 in response to South Africa's first innings of 433.

It was the Lions' eye-popping innings run-rate of 5.74 that's the major talking point ahead of next week's Test series, with the Lions' already sampling from the Brendon McCullum 'Bazball' copy-book.

There were ballistic tons from Harry Brook (140 off 170) and Ben Duckett (145 off 168), with the pair slamming 37 fours and six sixes (all to Brook).

They were supported by equally pacy knocks from Dan Lawrence (97 off 97), Sam Billings (92 off 96), Craig Overton (42 off 21), with the normally subdued Dom Sibley (48 off 62) also getting off to a reasonably quick start.

Markram's six-for came in 16 overs, but the Proteas weren't shocked at how England's next-berth Test candidates came for them.

Only Marco Jansen (1/111) and Duanne Olivier (2/59) went at less than five to the over, but Markram said it was good they were subjected to that type of pressure.

"I wouldn't say it was a surprise because I feel the wicket played really well," Markram said.

"They earned the right to play with that kind of freedom and I think it's going to be the same throughout the summer.

"I do think we bowled some bad balls that they capitalised on, but they also played some really good shots into some good areas.

"I think they batted really well and they put us under some pressure. It was nice for us to be put under that kind of pressure and other guys responded to it.

"The guys were a bit