South Africa allrounder Nadine de Klerk insists her team's painful performance against Australia hasn't dented their love of Test cricket, but she's called for a warm-up match to be scheduled next time around.
The historic first women's Test match between the two countries has turned into a fizzer.
After rolling South Africa for 76 in little over a session, Australia were able to declare at 9-575 at the WACA Ground on Friday.
The Proteas will resume play on day three at 3-67 in their second innings, requiring a further 432 runs just to make Australia bat again.
South Africa are fielding four debutants in their XI, with the other seven players having just one previous Test each to their name.
Remarkably, the match against Australia is only South Africa's second Test since 2014.
The other Test came in 2022, when South Africa drew against England in England.
The Proteas were aided by a warm-up red-ball match ahead of that Test.
Against Australia, the Proteas played a three-match T20 and a three-match ODI series before heading straight into Test mode.
De Klerk believes the Test match should be played at the start of a multi-format series, and also include a warm-up match.
"The players would be fresh if the Test is at the start of the series," she said.
"When we played in England, we played that warm-up game before the actual Test and I really think that's important in any format of the game.
"It's quite difficult to compete at this level if you only play one Test every two or three years."
South Africa spent most of Thursday fielding in 42-degrees heat.
They also spent more than two sessions in the field on Friday.
But the demoralising opening two days haven't dented the spirits within the group.
"I love it when the going gets tough," de Klerk said.
"You definitely can't compare it to white-ball cricket. And I think we've realised that over the last couple of days, that this game is really tough.
"When you're out there on a day where they almost scored 600 and we stood in the sun for almost a day and a half - it really challenges you.
"But I think that's why it's called Test cricket.
"I've loved the first couple of days and it wasn't easy, but we'd love to play more (Test cricket)."
De Klerk said the players have been trying their best to keep each other chirpy.
"We have a good group luckily. We love having fun making jokes," she said.
"We just try and make each other laugh on the field.
"We just try to back each other as much as we can, make as many jokes as we can, laugh around and enjoy it, even though it's tough."
Australian allrounder Annabel Sutherland was the hero on Friday with 210 from 256 balls.
It came on the same day her brother, Will Sutherland, snared 5-51 in a Sheffield Shield game against NSW.
