Reckless driving could yet cost England

It was entertaining and it was, at times, brilliant, but if England do not go on to win this series, they may well look back on the first day of the Cape Town Test with regret.

This was a day when England missed an opportunity. Winning first use of a super surface - it has the pace and carry to reward quality batting and bowling and looks as though it will offer turn later - England had the chance to bat South Africa out of the game. Out of the series, even.

They may yet do it. So well did Ben Stokes bat in the last 90 minutes of the day, exploiting a tired attack and some odd captaincy, that England still have the chance to build the imposing total that the conditions demand. At once stage he thrashed five of Chris Morris' first seven deliveries with the second new ball to the boundary. It was that sort of day.

But Stokes' success - and he really does look like a cricketer on the verge of golden times - should not obscure the failings of this England side. If they want to be the best, they have to be more ruthless and, on the first day here, they gave a wounded South Africa several opportunities to claw their way back into the series.

For it seems, like penny farthings and black-and-white TV, that the leave is a thing of the past. At least four of England's batsmen (Alastair Cook, Alex Hales, James Taylor and Joe Root) were out to deliveries that could and should have been left with the failure to convert strong starts again an issue. They have recorded seven half-centuries this series without anyone going on to make a century and Root's even 50 was the fifth time since the Cardiff Ashes Test that he has reached that figure without converting to a hundred.

And, as has been said, it is centuries that win matches. Especially on surfaces like this where a total of 400 is probably just about approaching par.

With a young South African attack - three of the four main bowlers had six Test caps between them going into this match - facing a flat pitch and a hot sun, the situation called for ruthless batting. It called for England to grind their opposition down with five sessions in the field. It called for them to build a match-defining total and apply scoreboard pressure and, perhaps, exploit any spin or swing that may be gained.

But it seems the world has changed. It seems the world has accelerated. And Test cricket reflects that. On a day when more than 80,000 went to a domestic T20 match in Australia, Test cricket apparently feels a need to compete and keep up.

There is almost relentless pressure on batsmen to score quickly these days. Whether it is social media or commentators, it has become common to hear the view that slow batsmen add to the pressure on their team-mates. Players are not immune to these influences.

How else to explain Nick Compton, the poster boy for blockers, attempting to thrash Chris Morris on the up through extra cover a few overs after lunch? He got away with it, but it was a bizarrely poor selection of shot from a man whose role is to build the foundations for his side. His departure, by contrast, pulling to midwicket on the stroke of tea, seemed forgivable: the shot was on; he just executed it poorly.

But how else to explain James Taylor reaching into a drive from his first delivery, well outside off stump, and edging to the keeper? Or Alastair Cook, the master of discipline and denial, being drawn into a drive and slicing a catch to slip? Or Joe Root, who remains incensed at his own failure to converts fifties into hundreds, and was lured into flirting outside off stump by a gap at third man. Each dismissal was impatient; each dismissal was avoidable.

There was no need to rush. There were plenty of poor balls delivered by this inexperienced attack without the need to search for them.

Perhaps Hales can be excused. While he could have left the delivery that dismissed him on length - this may be the quickest pitch England have played on since Perth - it was a fine ball nonetheless.

Besides, there is no conflict between praising Hales and Stokes' bold strokeplay and criticising Compton and Cook for theirs. They have different roles and different skills. It is the variety they offer that gives England such potential. That and the depth of their batting, which here feasted on the bowling later in the day.

Pressure upon the England batsmen to score quickly also comes from closer to home.

The England camp say there were no instructions given to the batsmen to accelerate at lunch or to play particularly aggressively in this match. In contrast, they say the current mantra in the team is to 'play your natural game; the game that saw you selected from county cricket'. So just as Stokes is expected, even encouraged, to bat positively, so Compton is expected to bat cautiously.

That message may have become lost in recent days, though. Any of the players reading Trevor Bayliss's post-match comments in Durban can only have concluded that their coach wants them to push on. They can only have concluded that he values positivity above solidity and felt encouraged, even subconsciously, to play more aggressively.

Bayliss's logic on that issue - which, put simplistically, is that a fine ball can dismiss a batsman at any time, so they should make progress while they can - is questionable. Just as a driver does not accelerate through foggy conditions to get through them, so a batsman with a good defence and patient approach is far less likely to be dismissed by the good ball when it is delivered. Just as Bayliss wouldn't expect his team to begin their climb of Table Mountain with a sprint, so he should expect his top-order to build an innings without the added burden of strike-rate considerations. Five days provides plenty of time for circumspection.

Of course there is a need to put away the bad ball. Of course a strokeless batsmen can put his partners under some pressure. But the history of Test cricket would seem to suggest that more bad balls will be delivered once the bowlers tire and the ball softens. And pressure builds on bowlers, too, when they strap on their boots for another session without a wicket and on captains when they see their attack tire and their options diminish. Certainly the decision not to give the second new ball to Morne Morkel and to give Kagiso Rabada just one slip within five overs of that new ball suggested a slightly scrambled mind for South Africa's captain, Hashim Amla.

England, at present, are an exciting and entertaining team and those are fine qualities. But they are also giving their opposition a chance. The best teams don't do that. They have to dare to be dull, as Gideon Haigh once put it. A better team than South Africa - and there are better teams out there, whatever the rankings say - would have punished them today.