Cricket correspondent Stuart Hess walks us through the most exciting moments during the past four days as South Africa took on England in the once-off Test match.
Johannesburg – Tumi Sekhukhune, in her role as nightwatcher, batted for 47 overs to help South Africa sneak a stunning draw in the once-off Test against England in Taunton on Thursday.
Cricket correspondent Stuart Hess walks us through the most exciting moments during the past four days in Taunton.
INNINGS 1: Marizanne Kapp produced yet another extraordinary performance adding to a bunch she’s had this year. Kapp admitted to nerves before the match, citing bad preparation and to more nerves when she went out to bat, which wasn’t helped by the situation the Proteas were in at 41/5.
But she was magnificent, balancing care, solid shotmaking and wonderful communication with less experienced batting partners, to score just the fourth Test hundred by a South African woman, and comfortably the highest.
INNINGS 2: England too were in a precarious position at 121/5 on the second day, when Nat Sciver set about rebuilding the innings. She had to be even more patient than Kapp, and had to talk a debutant – Alice Davidson-Richards through the early stages of her innings – before she unleashed some big shots that propelled her to 169 not out, the fourth highest individual score by an English woman in Tests.
ALSO READ: Gutsy Tumi helps SA earn amazing draw
ISSY WONG: Might we have witnessed the first steps of women’s cricket’s next superstar? Wong’s spell on Wednesday evening in which she removed Laura Wolvaardt and Lara Goodall, was a great spectacle – she’s got pace and moves the ball too – and it unsettled the South African batters.
Her first international wicket, with a ball that seamed through Wolvaardt’s defences in the first innings, created a life-long memory. She finished the match with three wickets – but should have had more.
CATCHES: All three taken by Sciver – two at gully and one at third slip — were out of the top draw. She rivals Kapp for her all-rounder ability.
Special mention too to Tammy Beaumont, whose goalkeeper effort at mid-off ended Kapp’s wonderful first innings performance
134: Balls faced by Tumi Sekhukhune in the second innings, that’s more than she had faced in total in her entire international career, which before the Test had consisted of 48 matches (24 ODIs and 24 T20Is) in which she’d scored a total of 24 runs.
She finished on 34 not out on Thursday. It was a determined effort, in which she displayed immense powers of concentration, excellent technique and temperament.
