‘The Test . . . was heading for a certain draw’ did not seem like such a wild prediction when the ICC media release was penned early on the final day of the inaugural women’s Test match between The Netherlands and South Africa in Rotterdam.

But the author had reckoned without the inexperience of the home side, whose batting crumbled on the final afternoon to give South Africa an extraordinary 159-run victory.

With more than a day’s play lost to rain, the Dutch had done well to dismiss the South Africans for 232, and had then ground their way to a painfully slow 73 for four in 89 overs by the close of play on Monday. 45 runs had come in 37 overs between lunch and tea, and only 25 in 43 overs in the day’s final session.

Progress was equally laborious on the last morning, as Violet Wattenberg made her way to 49 before she was ninth out, having faced no fewer than 378 balls. The 35 additional runs on the total came from 34.3 overs, and there were 66 maiden overs, almost half of all the overs bowled.

Off-spinner Sunette Loubser was the most effective of the South African bowlers, taking five for 37 in 40.3 overs, eighteen of them maidens. Seamer Ashlyn Kilowan was apparently virtually unplayable: her eleven overs included ten maidens as she finished with no wicket for 2.

If proceedings to this point had been unexciting, the final afternoon more than made up for it, as the South Africans saw their opportunity to pull off an unexpected win.

Starting just before the lunch interval, they hammered 85 runs in 21.3 overs for the loss of two wickets. Susan Benade’s rapid 51 was the crucial factor, and her dismissal, giving Marloes Braat her second wicket of the innings, was the signal for a bold declaration.

The Netherlands were now set 211 to win in about 49 overs, a target which on the evidence of the first innings seemed likely to be well beyond them. Their best hope was to play out the final session and a half for an honourable draw, but the South Africans had other ideas.

From the moment that Shabnan Ismael removed Wattenberg the Dutch were on the back foot, and with only skipper Hermien Rambaldo reaching double figures they were dismissed for 50 in just 40 overs.

Loubser again led the way with three for 22, while Ismael, Alycia Smith and Benade collected two wickets apiece.

This collapse is something that the Dutch women will want to put behind them as quickly as possible, and they will have the opportunity to make rapid amends on Thursday, when they take on the South Africans again in the first of a series of three ODIs, in Amstelveen.