England will go into day three of the Bloemfontein Test in a commanding position, after bowling South Africa out for 281 and increasing their lead to 145 at stumps on Monday.
South Africa finished up by bowling seven maiden overs and removing the first-innings centurion Maia Bouchier for a duck when she edged Ayanda Hlubi behind the stumps. But Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight safely staved off further inroads, consolidating the hard graft from the England bowlers earlier in the day.
South Africa had batted patiently for two out of three sessions: a partnership of 92 from 173 balls between Laura Wolvaardt and Annerie Dercksen was followed by a record 99-run fourth-wicket stand between Marizanne Kapp and Sune Luus, which took them safely through to tea.
But an unscheduled 45-minute break during the evening session due to lightning led to a batting collapse which flashed by almost as suddenly as the first bolt of lightning: the last seven South African wickets fell for 44 runs.
“We’re disappointed with how we ended our innings,” Kapp said. “We set it up really well, but myself, Sune [Luus] or Wolfie [Wolvaardt] had to kick on and get the hundred.”
England’s seamers played to their complementary strengths: Lauren Filer sent down two of the most hostile new-ball spells ever seen in women’s Test cricket, twice striking South African players on the helmet, before Lauren Bell wrapped up the tail with away-swing, finishing with four for 49.
It was also a memorable day for the 20-year-old Test debutant Ryana MacDonald-Gay, who was only called up three weeks ago and is playing in place of the injured Kate Cross. Her consistent stump-to-stump line, combined with movement off the seam, yielded wickets either side of the lightning delay. First came a huge maiden Test scalp, shaping the ball into Kapp’s off-stump; then she tempted Nadine de Klerk into nicking off.
Kapp, who has spent three seasons as MacDonald-Gay’s teammate at Oval Invincibles in The Hundred, described her as “a very talented young cricketer”. She added: “I felt like she bowled the best of all the pace bowlers. If you’re bowling with the seam like that, you’ll always get movement.”
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Sophie Ecclestone was again miserly, sending down nine maidens from her 25 overs, and picking up the key wicket of Wolvaardt leg-before, albeit in a fashion which left the hosts ruing the absence of DRS. Wolvaardt shook her head firmly when Ecclestone appealed, convinced she had got an inside edge, but the umpire raised her finger and she had to go.
Kapp said: “We’re disappointed we were on the wrong side of it, but it goes both ways. That’s cricket. It’s never easy for the umpires out there. It’s a hard job for them to be correct every single time.”
The wicket of Dercksen was also one to add to Ecclestone’s Test highlights reel: the South African fended off a bouncer from Filer in the direction of second slip, and when Knight couldn’t quite cling on, Ecclestone leapt up behind her, gazelle-like, to take a brilliant rebound catch.