South Africa won the toss, chose to bat, and finished the day on 267/7. On the face of it, that looks like a fairly mundane, evenly matched day, ripe for clichéd assessment:

The game is poised, the first hour tomorrow will be crucial, we shouldn’t judge the pitch until both sides have batted on it.

Clichéd, but true. Fortunately the details are a bit more interesting.

Morning session

After winning the toss and batting on a lively pitch in overcast conditions, South Africa would’ve been happy to sit down to lunch at 73/1. The somewhat surprisingly retained van Zyl was the man out, top-edging a half-hearted pull-paddle deep into Bairstow’s gloves. It was a compulsive shot, completely lacking in conviction, not what you’re hoping for from your opening batsman.

Elgar on the other hand is looking more and more the traditional opening bat, full of traditional values like the first hour belongs to the bowlers, take the shine off the ball, and above all else be nuggety. I doubt he even knew the score at lunchtime, the only score that matters is they didn’t get him out.

England didn’t bowl well before lunch. You’d expect bowlers as skilled and experienced as Anderson and Broad to quickly work out the ideal length and then hit it consistently, especially with life in the pitch and cloud in the sky. But they didn’t. Neither did Finn and Stokes. It was all very wasteful.

They bowled good balls, they bowled very good balls, but they didn’t bowl enough. Instead they bowled leave-balls and four-balls and South Africa’s batsmen obliged.

Afternoon session

England were much improved after lunch, but South Africa had all the luck. Amla was on the right side of an umpire’s call LBW review and twice in two overs he inside-edged narrowly past his leg stump. Sitting on 116/1 at drinks would’ve felt very good.

Immediately after the break, however, Ali found the outside edge of Elgar’s bat and Finn found the same of Amla’s. The hypothetical two quick wickets had been added, and the Stevens were even once again.

After three hours of nuggetiness, Elgar will be mad to get out trying to defend a wide ball off the back foot with an angled bat. The ball turned, probably to everyone’s surprise (and Dane Piedt’s chagrin), but Elgar shouldn’t have been playing at it, let alone edging it. Amla got a good one. So good, that he did well to nick it.

de Villiers and du Plessis saw the Proteas through to tea, with a combination of free-flowing strokeplay (de Villiers) and dogged defence (du Plessis). Finn was menacing throughout, snorting several balls past du Plessis’ outside edge, but at 152/3 the session was probably shared and South Africa were probably slightly ahead overall. But only slightly, and only because of de Villiers.

Evening session

de Villiers signalled his intent by bouncing the sixth ball after tea onto the road outside the Wanderers, but five balls later Stokes bounced him back and the (new) ball tickled de Villiers’ gloves on the way through to Bairstow’s. Four down for 161, with de Villiers gone, England could sense opportunity.

For a while now, du Plessis has looked and batted like a man with a very unclear mind, and one feared for his mental state when the odd ball leapt off a length and past his outside edge. Typically then, he got out middling a flick off his hip down deep square leg’s proverbial throat.

Bavuma meanwhile looked every bit a man coming off a hundred, with confident footwork and crisp timing. Sadly he was caught ball-watching and hesitant when Vilas called him through for a quick single, and good work from Woakes and Bairstow found him, with apologies, well short.

Vilas too looked like a man rich in recent runs, and despite starting the day with an eye on the pitch at Port Elizabeth his eye was clearly in. All the more reason to be disappointed with his dismissal, top-edging an attempted hook to fine leg, just five overs before the new ball and with South Africa unsafe at 225/7.

England were now firmly in control and the new ball was on the horizon – a procession was suddenly possible. Fortunately for South Africa, Morris and Rabada restored a sense of balance to the scorecard with an unbeaten 42-run partnership, to end the day on 267/7.

Morris looked shaky against good short bowling but good against everything else, while Rabada delivered on some of the potential they say he has with the bat (even if he played and missed a few by miles).

The English bowlers looked tired in the last hour. Not loose, just less threatening. Over the course of the day, Stokes and Finn were the pick, Ali was more effective than expected, and the fielders caught everything on offer, making a nice change from Newlands.

What to expect tomorrow

The experts are saying the pitch will quicken up tomorrow, but that’s secondary for me. The real question is whether it will retain the bounce and movement it offered today.

South Africa’s bowling attack is four-pronged but one-dimensional – the most dangerous man will be the one that bowls best. There should be pace, bounce and movement available to all, but none of that will be worth anything if the bowlers bowl badly.

England’s batsmen will have heard (and will be reminded) that sooner or later an unplayable ball will have their name on it. And it’s probably true. This makes attacking players like Hales, Root and Stokes even more valuable – both teams will know that if these players stick around for a couple of hours each, this low-scoring game could move quickly in England’s favour. Get those men early, however, and South Africa should be able to control the day.

It’s been an interesting seven days since the Proteas gave England a little scare (but not really) at Newlands. Well, on the South African side at least. Every pundit, scribe and fan with a Twitter account has had a say on the captaincy, injuries, workloads, the pitch, and even the state of the domestic game in South Africa. And now I’ll have mine.

The captaincy

A change in Test captain is usually a big thing, a big disruptive thing. But in this unusual case I believe the timing of the change and the quality of the people involved could actually galvanise the South Africans.

In Hashim Amla I see peace, not resentment. During his time as captain he spoke a lot about leading by example, and he has set another fantastic one in the manner, timing and class of his resignation.

In AB de Villiers I see enthusiasm, not self-satisfaction. He has already captained his country in ODIs, he has the support of the outgoing skipper and the current squad, and he really, really wants the job.

And in the rest of the squad I see respect, not doubt. Only one man can be captain, but Amla and de Villiers are both leaders, are both inspirational, and the players will play out of their skins for both of them.

The batting unit

Stephen Cook remains overlooked, despite scoring another century during the week, and Rilee Rossouw has been released to play domestic cricket. Stiaan van Zyl looks set to retain his position at the top of the order.

If not van Zyl, then from the current squad who? Surely Temba Bavuma has earned the right to cement his spot in the middle order, and surely Quinton de Kock is no more a long-term solution than Cook. Even with age on his side, de Kock will struggle to open and keep wicket for longer than Cook (only just 33) could conceivably do a job.

If van Zyl plays, then Elgar, Amla, de Villiers, du Plessis, Bavuma and de Kock pick themselves, presumably in that order.

The bowling unit

Dane Piedt has been released to play domestic cricket, so now the only question is which four fast bowlers will play. I’m sure Piedt is still the Proteas’ first-choice spinner, but circumstances have conspired against him in this case.

I presume the pitch played a part in the decision, and the groundsman better hope that Moeen Ali is wholly ineffective for all five days, but I think the real reason for Piedt’s omission is the lack of proven quality in the fit and able fast-bowling stocks.

If Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel were all fit and firing, I believe the selectors would’ve backed them to take care of the bulk of the business, with Piedt chipping in for three days and then possibly, hopefully providing an additional attacking edge on day four and/or five. However, with Steyn and Philander still injured, I don’t think the selectors see three reliable options out of Morkel, Kagiso Rabada, Kyle Abbott, Chris Morris and Hardus Viljoen, so they’ll play it safe and pick four, at Piedt’s expense.

If taken, I would begrudgingly agree with this decision on this occasion, and can only hope that Piedt grabs a bag for the Cobras and spends his down-time studying footage of Nathan Lyon bowling for Australia – I don’t know quite how he’s done it, but Lyon has become a very good Test bowler, in all conditions, and hopefully Piedt will one day do the same.

Picking four fast bowlers means leaving one out and it will probably be Abbott, because Morkel is the only bowler with more than six Tests under his boots; Rabada is the future, now; Morris can bat at eight and field at third and fourth slip at the same time; and Viljoen is apparently very, very fast.

Wildcard selections

JP Duminy may have scored 260* for the Cobras during the week, but bizarrely it could be his part-time off-spin, in Piedt’s absence, that earns him a recall. The only way I see it happening is at van Zyl’s expense with de Kock opening the batting, and hopefully that’s very unlikely. Such a selection would send inconsistent messages to several players in and outside the squad, and would smell like desperation to the England camp.

And what of England?

Well, while the South African selectors have been earning their pay the English team is picking itself. I suspect that meeting was simply a case of “Are all who played at Newlands present and well? Marvellous, same again please.”

Now let’s just hope the weather holds.