Proteas slump to heavy defeat in Bloem despite Mlaba's star performance

A historic 10-wicket match haul by Proteas Women spinner Nonkululeko Mlaba was overshadowed by a disastrous batting collapse which saw England claim a huge 286-run win in the one-off Test in Bloemfontein on Wednesday.

The home side, who battled well despite being on the back foot for a large majority of the match, came unstuck in the final session of the third day having already lost both openers before the tea break, eventually collapsing from 12/2 to 64 all out inside 20 overs. 

Earlier, a gritty 90 from number three Heather Knight gave England’s innings some much-needed impetus as she struck 10 boundaries and faced 191 balls to help her side to 236, an overall lead of 350. 

Bell won the player-of-the-match title with figures of 8/77, but Mlaba’s performance, albeit in defeat, stood out as she recorded the best figures by an SA women’s cricketer, returning with career-best figures of 10/157.

Resuming day three on 31/1 with Knight and Tammy Beaumont, the duo shared 39 runs before Knight was also involved in a 67-run stand with Nat Sciver-Brunt, and 42 with Amy Jones, helping to build England’s lead.

Mlaba’s six second-innings wickets for 67 runs, after the team lost the services of two quick bowlers in Marizanne Kapp and Ayanda Hlubi to injury, did a lot of the damage to the visitors’ batting line-up, but by then most of the damage had already been done.

The left-arm orthodox spinner got stuck in as she first broke the partnership by removing Sciver-Brunt (37) before claiming the wickets of Jones (24), Charlie Dean (1), and Sophie Ecclestone (16), before getting the prized scalp of Knight, Ryana MacDonald-Gay (4) with England on 229/8 and a lead of 343. 

They added seven more runs before they were all out for 236, a lead of 350 and the proverbial mountain to climb for the home side. 

With six overs left before tea, SA went in to bat and were immediately under pressure, losing the wickets of Laura Wolvaardt and Anneke Bosch, both going for four runs, to head to the break at 12/2 after 5.2 overs. 

Things went from bad to worse for the home side as they lost their next eight wickets for the addition of just 52 runs, as Lauren Bell (4/27), Lauren Filer (1/12) and Sophie Ecclestone (2/7) ripped into the Proteas batting line-up, which included only two double-digit scores, by Marizanne Kapp (21) and Nonkululeko Mlaba (14), and three ducks as they were rolled in 19.4 overs.

It was the third defeat for the Proteas Women in their last four Test matches.

In their last nine red-ball encounters dating back to 2001/2002, the Proteas have won just one, against the Netherlands, and drawn two, with six defeats. 

HeraldLIVE