South Africa v England: women’s Test cricket international, day two – live

Key events

Show key events only

Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature

18th over: South Africa 67-1 (Wolvaardt 31, Dercksen 22) McDonald-Gay again, as the dog curls up next to me on the sofa after a brief forray for squirrel sniffing in the garden. Another impressive over of right-arm medium pace, she’s stemmed the run-rate where no-one else has.

17th over: South Africa 66-1 (Wolvaardt 30, Dercksen 22) Dercksen picks up four from Sciver-Brunt, but unconvincingly with an edge through the slips.

And a first message drops into the inbox. Good morning Peter Dudley!

”I’m trying hard to imagine an inswinger zigzagging and my mind well and truly boggles! Now there’s a delivery we’d all love to perfect!”

Hmmm, now you’ve put me on the spot maybe it was more of a zig…but it was definitely fabulous!

Summary

16th over: South Africa 62-1 (Wolvaardt 30, Dercksen 18) Knight rolls up her short sleeves, as here in Manchester the day slips into a gray dawn. A double change as 20 year old Ryana McDonald-Gay replaces Bell. She’s only 20 and this is just her fourth England game and her first Test. A neat and tidy maiden.

15th over: South Africa 62-1 (Woolvaardt 30, Dercksen 18) Heather Knight thinks it is time for a change, and switches Nat Sciver-Brunt into the attack to replace Filer. Into the grove immediately, as you’d expect from some sort of superwoman. And as I type that, she over-pitches and Dercksen thanks her with a off-drive for four – and another two balls later. She’s got impressive sang-froid this young woman.

Summary

14th over: South Africa 52-1 (Wolvaardt 29, Dercksen 10) Advantage Woolvaardt, who with text-book technique, twice drives Bell for four through the covers. And South Africa have notched up fifty in quick time.

13th over: South Africa 41-1 (Wolvaardt 19, Dercksen 10) Filer’s fourth over of the morning – I wish I could give you a mph calculation of how fast she’s bowling but I can’t see one on screen. Visibly intimidating though, rapid enough to make Dercksen back away, though she ripostes next ball by picking up four with a peachy cover drive.

12th over: South Africa 37-1 (Woolvaardt 18, Dercksen 6) Dercksen may not be used to the pace that Filer is delivering the other end but she has impressive poise. She drives Bell through the covers for four with aplomb.

Summary

11th over: South Africa 33-1 (Wolvaardt 18, Dercksen 2) Filer is finding her mojo – and delivers some spicy stuff to Dercksen. A searing bouncer to start – Derkcksen snaps back her neck to avoid being hit, her long blond hair following behind. She smiles. Another fierce bouncer follows, which Dercksen doesn’t play as well, loses sight of it, and is hit on the helmet as it flies down to the rope for four byes. Intriguing!

Summary

10th over: South Africa 28-1 (Wolvaardt 16, Dercksen 0) Bell springs in, a hop at the start of her run-up. Another smart, neat over.

9th over: South Africa 25-1 (Wolvaardt 16, Dercksen 0) Filer starts the over with a full toss which Woolvaardt drives for four, finishes with a snorting bouncer which heads for Woolvaardt’s throat and leaves her flat on her back.

8th over: South Africa 21-1 (Wolvaardt 12, Dercksen 0 ) Bosch looked all at sea for the three balls she faced, wildly wafting at the first, and nibbling obligingly to the third. An absolute beauty from Bell to finish the over, a HUGE inswinger which Dercksen left but which zig-zagged in and missed her off stump by a Christmas tree’s needle.

WICKET! Bosch c Jones b Bell 6 (South Africa 21-1)

Bosch pushes at a ball that she could have left a hundred times out of a hundred and nibbles behind.

Morning session

7th over: South Africa 21-0 (Wolvaardt 12, Bosch 6) Three slips and a gully stand and wait as Lauren Filer runs in with the first ball of the day, an inswinger on the money. From there Filer is a little wayward, drifting legside. Woolvaardt nudges one of them down to the rope.

The South Africans have a last gulp of water, and Heather Knight leads out her troops.

They’re prodding the pitch in Bloem – yesterday there was a strong wind down the ground, today it has dropped to just a little breeze. The surface still looks wonderful for bat and ball, but yesterday’s wind took most of the moisture out of the surface and there are now a few cracks.

While we wait for this Test to begin, you might (or might not) want to catch up on England’s exploits in Hamilton – a hundred for Williamson, a hamstring blow for Stokes, and another Matt-Henry snaffling for Crawley.

The pictures are now beaming in from Blomfontein where the light is bright and the sun is hot. Kaya Zondo and Nono Pongolo are singing Bouchier’s praises – her 126 was the third highest score on Test debut behind Australia’s Mel Jones and Michelle Goszko.

A lovely picture of Maia Bouchier and her dad Anthony, who was an investor in Wisden.com in the early days of the internet back in the early noughties.

This is worth a listen from Raf and Syd on both England women’s contracts and the ECB’s new salary announcement on the Hundred where there are huge increases in pay for the top tier men, not so much for anyone else.

This was Raf’s take on day one:

Preamble

Good morning! As schoolchildren porridge-up on the last Monday before Christmas, the Manchester sky still a long way from dawn, England and South Africa prepare for day two of the one-off Test in sunny Bloemfontein.

England’s women had the best of yesterday, racking up 395 at quite the lick, with a debut Test hundred for the impressive Maia Bouchier and the quickest Test century in women’s history for Nat Sciver Brunt.

South Africa fought back in the late afternoon, snipping this way and that through the late middle order and tail, and England were unable to make a breakthrough in the six overs after Heather Knight’s declaration.

Action starts at 8am, in this first women’s Test in South Africa since 2002. Do join me, coffee in hand.