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Cape Town – Many will deem it simply a case of “as you were, then” following game one of the 2019 World Cup: confirmation that favourites England are going to be a very serious force; South Africa well less than assured of being semi-finalists at the event.
The margin of the host nation’s victory at The Oval on Thursday – a gaping 104 runs – probably only enhances the accuracy of that belief.
Especially disappointing and educative was the Proteas coming up so short in their chase of a 312 target, their 207 all out falling well short of what might have been considered an honourable effort even in defeat on a pitch that was always worth well more than that to the batting side.
Yes, that department, above any other, looks like remaining SA’s Achilles’ heel; the biggest impediment to a rousing campaign by them over the next few weeks.
It was difficult at the break between innings, considering knowledge of the Proteas’ all too regular struggles at the crease in recent times, to join the well-subscribed (or so it seemed?) lobby back home enthusing over the prospect of not having to chase down 330 or 350.
Consensus appeared to be that Faf du Plessis’s charges were faced with achieving par … and possibly not even that.
But South Africa have only ever once previously got to a target of 300 or more to triumph against these particular foes: back in February 2016 at a home stronghold, Centurion, when Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock shared a double-century opening stand and each got to three figures.
We should also not get too blasé just yet, frankly, about totals in excess of 300 being both regularly posted and often enough also hunted down at this World Cup.
It is a sum of runs that still means … well, you have to go some.
What is a little scary is that the much-vaunted South African attack, supposedly their major pride and joy, was broadly considered to have done pretty decent damage limitation against the customarily free-scoring English stroke-players … and yet they still amassed a total well beyond the capability, on the day, of their first-up foes.
Not especially because they were bad in that respect, but the Proteas were also significantly outshone in the area of fielding, a tough pill to swallow considering how often before they have had the measure of England quite handsomely at previous World Cups.
Ben Stokes’s one-handed wonder-catch, goalkeeper-style, on the fence to dismiss Andile Phehlukwayo, who was beginning to wield the long handle quite defiantly and crisply near the finish, summed up the virtually unerring professionalism and polish of the eventual winners in that respect.
There’s some regrouping to do by the Proteas, that’s for sure, following this sobering first outing, and with batting the top item on the agenda, you would firmly hope.
While lithe, tall rookie speed merchant Jofra Archer, in only his fourth – and now best – one-day international gave several South African batsmen an uncomfortable hurry-up during his haul of three for 27 plus a concussion-inducing strike to the helmet grille of veteran Amla, there were also plentiful self-induced dismissals and that hallmark obviously needs to be put to bed in a relative hurry.
But before you spit too contemptuously into your empty beverage glass and summarily forsake them for the remainder of the elongated tournament, it would probably be worthwhile to take a deep breath and come to the calmer conclusion that it is ludicrously premature to brand the Proteas an irreversibly wilted force.
Gnarly sages watching events at The Oval may just have picked up, for example, on the real possibility that South Africa were less match-sharp than their formidable opponents – something that would clearly only run the risk of widening any perceived gulf in the contest.
England entered the World Cup having taken no chances in readiness terms: they played a five-match ODI series against Pakistan in the immediate lead-up, winning it well and hitting the ground more discernibly running on Thursday -- at least partly as a consequence of that bilateral combat.
The Proteas, for their part, last played as a full-scale ODI unit in mid-March, when they clean-swept a lacklustre Sri Lankan outfit 5-0 before dispersing for the IPL and other reasons.
One of their two World Cup warm-up fixtures lasting a miserly 12.4 overs only aggravating the situation, their prep has also been destabilised by the slow return to best fitness of a handful of key characters in recent weeks, and especially on the pace bowling front where Dale Steyn remains frustratingly absent.
Like it or not, this taxing date against England did seem, at times, a cobwebs remover – a brutal shock treatment, too? -- in certain cases.
There is a good enough chance that the Proteas, a proud lot under Du Plessis, will show greatly, necessarily better all-round polish in the fast turnaround (not a bad thing, I fancy) to Sunday’s second match at the same venue against Bangladesh, who they have beaten in 17 of 20 ODI meetings.
Nor would it be utterly sacrilegious if coach Ottis Gibson and company decided not to even tweak the combination so outgunned on Thursday -- too obvious a jerking of knees in selection with eight round-robin matches still ahead might only send out a message of nervy instability so early in the major jamboree.
“You’re better than this … now show it against the Tigers,” could be a succinct message, with a no-change-yet policy duly going on to be proved just the right medicine.
*Follow our chief writer on Twitter: @RobHouwing
