South Africa toured England in 2022 for a women’s Test match, which ended in a draw. Raf Nicholson’s report appeared in the 2023 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.

Three weeks before this series, ICC chair Greg Barclay said women’s Tests would not be “part of the landscape moving forward”. Players and coaches from both teams voiced their disappointment, especially since a multiformat series – with points available for a one-off Test, three one-day internationals and three Twenty20s – could be an effective way to entrench Test cricket in the schedule for nations outside England and Australia. First devised for the women’s Ashes, but adopted for England’s series against India in 2021, it was becoming a regular feature.

Though South Africa drew the four-day game at Taunton – their first Test since touring India in November 2014, and first against England since August 2003 – they lost all six white-ball fixtures. The tour was marred by off-field controversy and the absence of many senior players. Captain Dane van Niekerk, still nursing the fractured ankle which had kept her out of the World Cup, did not travel, while Shabnim Ismail, Chloe Tryon and Ayabonga Khaka missed the Test through injury; Marizanne Kapp flew home ahead of the T20 series for family reasons.

To widespread surprise, Lizelle Lee announced her international retirement three days before the first ODI. It later emerged that Cricket South Africa had told her she was being sent home and, until she met their requirements on weight and fitness, they would withhold the no objection certificate she required to play in The Hundred. Lee claimed this would have significant financial implications for her young family; the board said they were confident the situation could have been resolved in time. Whatever the truth, South Africa’s inability to win a single match was cause for concern. They did little better in the Commonwealth Games.

Retirements also led to a changing of the guard for England. Katherine Brunt quit Test cricket nine days before Taunton, and played only one of the ODIs; as Anya Shrubsole had left international cricket in April, that opened the way for young seamers Issy Wong – an unexpected Test selection, prompted by Emily Arlott suffering the after-effects of Covid – and Lauren Bell. Emma Lamb found new confidence opening the batting: she was the leading run-scorer in the ODIs, with 234 at 78, including a century at Northampton.

Sophia Dunkley became the first black woman to score a hundred for England, in the second ODI, while Tammy Beaumont reached her tenth international century in the third, just after learning she had been omitted from the Commonwealth Games squad. Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp, both 17, received their first England call-ups for the T20 series, while Bryony Smith was recalled after a three-year absence to add oomph to the powerplay batting. Alice Davidson-Richards had been out of the side a year longer, and she celebrated her return to international cricket with a hundred on Test debut.

South Africa touring party: SE Luus (c), AE Bosch, T Brits, T Chetty, N de Klerk, M du Preez, L Goodall, S Ismail, S Jafta, M Kapp, A Khaka, MM Klaas, L Lee, N Mlaba, TS Sekhukhune, A Steyn, CL Tryon, D Tucker, L Wolvaardt. Coach: HK Moreeng.
Lee retired from international cricket before the one-day series, during which Chetty and Sekhukhune were injured, and Kapp returned home for family reasons; Brits, du Preez, Klaas and Tucker were added to the squad.

Test match at Taunton, June 27-30, 2022: Drawn

England 2pts. South Africa 2pts. Toss: England. Debuts: LK Bell, AN Davidson-Richards, EL Lamb, IECM Wong; AE Bosch, N de Klerk, L Goodall, S Jafta, SE Luus, N Mlaba, TS Sekhukhune, A Steyn, L Wolvaardt.

England had high hopes of their first victory in seven Tests since Perth in January 2014. They had far more experience of the format, and Knight opted to bowl under overcast skies: the Dukes ball, finally replacing the Kookaburra used in previous Tests, was expected to swing. After a multitude of cap presentations – four for England, nine for South Africa – it did indeed swing, prodigiously. The tourists slipped to 45-4, with wickets for debutants Issy Wong, who rattled Wolvaardt’s stumps, and Lauren Bell, whose inswinger trapped Lee for a duck. That became 89-5 just after lunch when Cross dismissed Luus, edging to third slip.

But Kapp’s positive batting prevented a capitulation. Creaming boundaries through the covers, she reached her first Test hundred not long after tea, with a four slashed over the cordon – at 151 balls, the fastest recorded century against England in women’s Tests. Kapp dominated the strike, moving from 59 to 150 while Nadine de Klerk, Sinalo Jafta and Tumi Sekhukhune scored 22 between them. She finally departed when Beaumont took a brilliant flying catch at mid-off, and South Africa were all out for 284 just before stumps.

Next morning, Emma Lamb scored her first international run (she had not faced in two white-ball appearances, and made a duck in the other) when she guided a single through mid-wicket. England looked firmly in control while she and Beaumont were adding 65. But late movement from Anneke Bosch did for both, and Knight was run out first ball after lunch, hesitating in response to a call from Sciver. When Dunkley and Jones went in successive overs, England were 121-5, still 163 behind.

That put immense pressure on Alice Davidson-Richards, in her first Test, after four years out of international cricket. After 45 painful balls, she had just nine. But she rode it out, and put on 207 with Sciver – the joint-second-best stand for any England wicket. Both brought up maiden Test centuries on the second evening, which made the beaming Davidson-Richards the first England player since WG Grace in 1880 to score a hundred and take a wicket on Test debut (she had removed de Klerk the previous day). She offered an easy catch to Lee at backward point just before stumps, but Sciver continued to attack on the third morning. She had reached 169 not out – the fourth-highest Test score for England’s women, 20 short of Betty Snowball’s record of 189 against New Zealand at Christchurch in 1934-35 – when Knight declared before lunch, with a lead of 133.

Rain wiped out most of the third afternoon and evening, though play resumed at 6.30, and Wong helped reduce South Africa to 55-3 by the close. But nightwatcher Sekhukhune proved impossible to dislodge on the final morning, and her solid partnership with Kapp, combined with further downpours, made the game safe for South Africa. The weather effectively cut the Test’s four days to three; the players came off for the last time at half past four, and the captains shook hands an hour later.

Player of the Match: NR Sciver.

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