Key events
This is worth a listen from Raf and Syd on both England women’s contracts and the ECB’s new salary announcement on the Hundred where there are huge increases in pay for the top tier men, not so much for anyone else.
This was Raf’s take on day one:
Preamble
Good morning! As schoolchildren porridge-up on the last Monday before Christmas, the Manchester sky still a long way from dawn, England and South Africa prepare for day two of the one-off Test in sunny Bloemfontein.
England’s women had the best of yesterday, racking up 395 at quite the lick, with a debut Test hundred for the impressive Maia Bouchier and the quickest Test century in women’s history for Nat Sciver Brunt.
South Africa fought back in the late afternoon, snipping this way and that through the late middle order and tail, and England were unable to make a breakthrough in the six overs after Heather Knight’s declaration.
Action starts at 8am, in this first women’s Test in South Africa since 2002. Do join me, coffee in hand.
