Sometimes you get the sport you need. With the ICC’s chairman, Greg Barclay, ringing the death knell for women’s Test cricket earlier this month, England and South Africa knew they were playing for more than pride and prestige in this one-off meeting. And over an undulating first day in Taunton, they put on a show that might keep the lights on a little longer.
If any person deserves credit for it, it is Marizanne Kapp whose 150 off 213 balls is surely a contender for the most exceptional innings a South African has ever produced. She came up at 45 for four against an attack with their tails up. She last played a Test in 2014 when she made scores of 0 and 19 in an innings defeat in India. The safe money was on an early exit.
“I was very nervous about getting into this game,” Kapp said. “When I first started [this innings] I was very nervous. A few days ago I thought I should not play Test cricket. Fortunately, it came down to me and my teammates. ”
She was first vigilant in a rebuilding stand of 44 with her skipper Sune Luus and then took the lead role in a counter-attack partnership of 72 with Anneke Bosch. When Bosch put Sophie Ecclestone at 30 points after a drink break, the score was 161 for six. Kapp was at 59. In charge, but a long way short of greatness.
She plundered 91 of South Africa’s subsequent 115 runs after running out of partners before ending a misty blow from Laura Bell and spectacular catch from Tammy Beaumont in the middle of her exhibition.
Kapp did not just look after the tail. She dragged it to a total of 284. She beat Ecclestone – the number one bowler in the one-day and T20I format – with contempt. She mocked Kate Cross and Nat Sciver and she bullied newcomers Issy Wong and Laura Bell. No bowler was spared.
Context matters when the good is distinguished from the great and this extra element is enhanced by England’s brilliance with the new ball. With clouds over, Heather Knight chose to have a ball and it was the right decision. She may be the first English Test captain without Anya Shrubsole or Katerine Brunt since 2008, but she did have Cross, the English bowlers’ choice with a return of four for 63 from 17.4 overs. It was her disturbingly penetrating lines that deceived Andrie Steyn into leaving one that clattered in the stumps.