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

Key events

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 (Woolvaardt 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.

Maia Bouchier’s father, Anthony, was an early investor in Wisden Online, which bought Cricinfo in 2003.

It was a proud moment for the pair today, as Maia scored a century on Test debut 🙌 pic.twitter.com/8DnbcsRs84

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) December 15, 2024

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.