England shine bright under Bloem's sun

Bloemfontein's sun burns mercilessly bright and hot, but it was put in the shade by Nonkululeko Mlaba's dazzling smile at Mangaung Oval on Tuesday. We saw a lot of it.

Mlaba's 6/67 earned her match figures of 10/157 - the first time a bowler has taken more than eight wickets for South Africa in a women's Test.

But even Mlaba's smile was eclipsed by Heather Knight's batting and Lauren Bell's bowling, which hurtled England to victory inside three days.

Their 286-run win - the third-biggest in the history of women's Tests - was England's first in the 10 Tests they have played since January 2014, five of them drawn. South Africa, who chased 351 to win, were bowled out in 19.4 overs for 64, their record low total. Ayanda Hlubi didn't bat in the second innings because of a torn hip flexor.

Knight, England's captain and No. 3, was eighth out for 90. She batted for more than three-and-a-half hours and faced 191 balls in a rock solid innings and with little significant support. The 67 that Knight and Nat Sciver-Brunt shared for the third wicket was England's only stand of 50 or more, and Sciver-Brunt's 37 was their next highest score.

"I felt like there were still runs out there and I needed to stretch the lead and put us in a position where we could dictate and control and attack at the right times, and have enough runs on the board to do that," Knight told a press conference.

"It wasn't my most fluent innings. I had to graft and try to get us up to a score where it put the game out of the Saffers' reach and put more time in their legs. Mentally it's tough after you've fielded for so long [74.1 overs] to then go out and bat. I knew that if we put more time into that and gave our bowlers a bit more rest, it would enable us to go and do what we did."

England resumed with a lead of 145, and scored 136 at the cost of three wickets in the morning session. By then, Hlubi had been ruled out. But with Mlaba bowling accurately and finding sharp turn, the South Africans thought they were still in the contest. That might have been closer to the truth had Marizanne Kapp's shoulder problem not prevented her from bowling at all on Tuesday.

England were dismissed for 236, leaving South Africa to face six overs before Tea. Bell trapped Laura Wolvaardt in front for four to end the third of those overs, and Lauren Filer did the same to Anneke Bosch with what became the last ball of the session to reduce the home side to 12/2.

Twenty-one deliveries into the third session, Annerie Derksen fell foul of the DRS disaster that first struck with the second ball of the match on Sunday - when Marizanne Kapp had Tammy Beaumont palpably lbw but was unable to review a poor on-field decision because CSA had decided the system would not be used in the match.

The curse came again on Monday, when Wolvaardt was given out leg-before to Sophie Ecclestone despite having edged the ball onto her pad.

And then, after Tea on Tuesday, Dercksen was given out caught at short leg off Bell despite replays showing conclusively that she had not hit the ball. As there was no DRS, the injustice could not be undone.

All of which would not have changed the result. England were demonstrably the better team and deserved their thumping win.

"I loved the graft over the last three days that put us in the position to be able to go and do what we did this afternoon and finish the game off in style," Knight said. "I'm really chuffed with the girls' efforts. And, individually, it's nice to contribute. I loved captaining out there. It's such a fun format to captain - the way things change; the conditions, what the team's trying to do.

"We play Test cricket so scarcely, and you're always learning about how you go about it - the different tactics, the different periods of the game that you have to manage and how that varies as conditions change."

For their next Test trick, England will take on Australia in Melbourne from January 30 in the first ever women's day/night match in the format. Men, who almost always come to Test cricket with significant red-ball experience to draw on, have struggled to adjust to the pink-ball game. What chance might women, who hardly ever play red-ball cricket, have to deliver a good contest? And that, mind, in an arena - the MCG is not a ground and is beyond a stadium - where they have played only two Tests, the most recent of them in January 1949?

"It's obviously different with the pink ball and the conditions at the MCG, and we'll have to adapt," Knight said. "But I think the fact that we were able to play like we did here with only two days of preparation after the white-ball series [against South Africa] should give us confidence."

No men's team would be sent into a Test in those circumstances. Happily for all concerned, including women's cricket's growing audience, men will be surplus to requirements.