Lauren Bell stars with four wickets as England consent regulate agetst South Africa | England women’s cricket team

England will go into day three of the Bloemfontein Test in a directing position, after bowling South Africa out for 281 and increasing their direct to 145 at stumps on Monday.

South Africa finished up by bowling seven mhelpen overs and removing the first-innings centurion Maia Bouchier for a duck when she edged Ayanda Hlubi behind the stumps. But Tammy Beaumont and Heather Knight shieldedly staved off further inroads, validateating the difficult graft from the England bowlers earlier in the day.

South Africa had batted acunderstandledgeingly for two out of three sessions: a partnership of 92 from 173 balls between Laura Wolvaardt and Annerie Dercksen was adhereed by a enroll 99-run fourth-wicket stand between Marizanne Kapp and Sune Luus, which took them shieldedly thraw to tea.

But an unscheduled 45-minute fracture during the evening session due to weightlessning led to a batting collapse which flashed by almost as suddenly as the first bolt of weightlessning: the last seven South African wickets fell for 44 runs.

“We’re disnominateed with how we finished our innings,” Kapp shelp. “We set it up repartner well, but myself, Sune [Luus] or Wolfie [Wolvaardt] had to boot on and get the hundred.”

England’s seamers take parted to their complementary strengths: Lauren Filer sent down two of the most antagonistic novel-ball spells ever seen in women’s Test cricket, twice striking South African take parters on the helmet, before Lauren Bell wrapped up the tail with away-striumphg, finishing with four for 49.

It was also a memorable day for the 20-year-anciaccess Test debutant Ryana MacDonald-Gay, who was only called up three weeks ago and is take parting in place of the injured Kate Cross. Her reliable stump-to-stump line, united with shiftment off the seam, produceed wickets either side of the weightlessning procrastinate. First came a huge mhelpen Test scalp, shaping the ball into Kapp’s off-stump; then she lureed Nadine de Klerk into nicking off.

Kapp, who has spent three seasons as MacDonald-Gay’s teammate at Oval Invincibles in The Hundred, depictd her as “a very talented lesser cricketer”. She inserted: “I felt enjoy she bowled the best of all the pace bowlers. If you’re bowling with the seam enjoy that, you’ll always get shiftment.”

Sophie Ecclestone was aget miserly, sfinishing down nine mhelpens from her 25 overs, and picking up the key wicket of Wolvaardt leg-before, albeit in a create which left the presents ruing the absence of DRS. Wolvaardt shook her head firmly when Ecclestone pguideed, guaranteed she had got an inside edge, but the umpire elevated her finger and she had to go.

Kapp shelp: “We’re disnominateed we were on the wrong side of it, but it goes both ways. That’s cricket. It’s never basic for the umpires out there. It’s a difficult job for them to be accurate every one time.”

The wicket of Dercksen was also one to insert to Ecclestone’s Test highweightlesss reel: the South African ffinished off a bouncer from Filer in the straightforwardion of second slip, and when Knight couldn’t quite cling on, Ecclestone leapt up behind her, gazelle-enjoy, to consent a weightless rebound catch.