England wrapped up the Test in Bloemfontein with a day to spare as South Africa disintegrated – Lauren Bell finishing with 8-76 across the match as South Africa were bowled out for just 64 – their lowest ever total in a completed innings in a Women’s Test. (Though South Africa still have some way to go to match the 35 that England were bowled out for in Melbourne in 1958, on a day when Australia were also bowled out for 38 – remarkably, the game still ended in a draw, partly because one of the three allocated days was lost to rain, so it was effectively a two-day match.)
England (395-9 & 236) bt. South Africa (281 & 64-9) #ENGvSA 🏏
From what felt like (at worst) a half-decent position on Day 2 at 237-3, South Africa lost 16-108 across their two innings to go down to their heaviest ever defeat by 286 runs.
Heather Knight will be cracking-out the champagne to celebrate her first ever Test win in 8 years as captain; but if we are honestly weighing up the scales of England Good <-> South Africa Bad then they mostly fall down on the latter side, which has been the story of the entire tour. Lauren Bell did bowl well today, and England did take 20 wickets. (Well… 19 actually – Ayanda Hlubi apparently could have batted if she’d really had to, but the coaches correctly surmised that the chances of her batting out 4 sessions for the draw were not high.)
But in-between, England were themselves effectively bowled out twice. (Though technically they declared their first innings at 9-down.) Their performance with the bat in the 2nd innings certainly won’t be giving the Australians any sleepless nights ahead of the Ashes Test at the MCG next month.
Maia Bouchier added a 19-ball duck to her century from the first day; Nat Sciver-Brunt was forced to remind people that she can’t do it every time; whilst Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Amy Jones showed again that they aren’t really able to adjust to the different pace required for Test cricket. Only an obstinate 90 from Heather Knight made the difference between a respectable 2nd innings score and something that could have put a very different complexion on the game. That, plus the lead from the first innings, meant that South Africa were always batting to save the game.
Subsequently, the bowlers did their job – putting the ball in the right place and letting momentum do its work as the South African Jenga-tower began to topple one last time in a series where we’ve seen a few castles crumble. We weren’t supposed to be counting overall series points, but if we were it was 14-2.
It’s a big win, but perhaps the biggest winners today were not England but Sony – yes, that Sony – the company that made your PlayStation, who also own Hawk-Eye – better known to cricket fans these days as DRS.
DRS is a fantastic technology and the game of cricket is the better for it, but it is also very expensive, so Cricket South Africa opted to leave it on the bench for this Test, which was clearly being run on a shoestring. South Africa were soon ruing its absence however, after Laura Wolvaardt was given out LBW yesterday having clearly inside-edged the ball onto her pad. Wolvaardt’s reaction earned her a reprimand (somewhat unfairly, I think – she was obviously fuming, but she didn’t actually argue with the umpire) but worse was to come.
Annerie Dercksen also got an edge onto her pad, but this one ballooned-up into the air and was caught by Tammy Beaumont at short leg. England appealed vociferously, and the umpire behind the stumps appeared initially to say no, before conferring with her colleague at square leg, and then sending it upstairs to the 3rd umpire. To everyone watching, the question appeared to be whether or not Dercksen had edged it – there was no doubt that Tammy had caught it cleanly – so when the verdict came back “Out”, it left everyone wondering on what basis it had been referred.
This is important, because the 3rd umpire can check if the batter hit it; but first the decision has to be referred, and that can only happen if there is doubt over whether or not the catch was fair, which there didn’t appear to be any doubt about; suggesting the umpires had got it wrong.
However, there was one more twist in the tale to come. Heather Knight revealed in the post-match press conference that the referral had been not for a clean catch, but for a bump ball. Once that has been referred (as with the catch) the 3rd Umpire can check whether or not the ball was actually hit.
So ultimately the correct decision appears to have been made, although there is still perhaps an argument that without a “Snickometer” the 3rd umpire didn’t have enough evidence to relitigate the on-field decision. Regardless, the decision came at the expense of huge confusion over whether or not the right procedure had been followed and whether Dercksen should have been given out, which leaves a bitter taste on the tongue.
It certainly left the new South African coach, Mandla Mashimbyi, with questions. In his post-match press conference, he was diplomatic – explicitly saying that he was concerned that the assembled journalists were trying to get him to say something which would get him into trouble – but he made it pretty clear he wasn’t happy, and that the board might wish to reconsider their decision not to use DRS in future.
The bottom line is that it now feels like a Rubicon has been crossed – we’ve already been here in other formats and series, and every time we’ve ended-up saying “Enough!” We can’t play matches of this profile, without DRS in future – it always ends in controversy and the boards backing down anyway. The concern is, as Raf expressed on the CRICKETher Weekly last Sunday, that the cost of hosting a Test will then become prohibitive for the less prosperous boards; but perhaps imaginative solutions can be found? For example, could this game have been played back-to-back with a men’s Test, using the same cameras and saving on setup and tear-down costs? Could Sony be leaned-on to offer the system pro-bono as a gesture of equality? Whatever the answer, it needs finding – the SOS has gone up – someone needs to answer it.
CRICKETher 