Ben Gardner on a day that showed England, despite their poor recent form, how narrow the gap is between them and the best of the rest in the world.

The crucial moment of the day should have come just under halfway through it, when Stuart Broad seemed to have winkled out Rassie van der Dussen, only for a replay to reveal a no-ball. Though only playing his second Test match, van der Dussen has looked South Africa’s most dependable batsman this series, and as an ODI average in excess of 70 attests to, he knows how to make the most of an opportunity.

And yet, while the right-hander went to his second half-century in consecutive innings, and he and Dean Elgar put on the only century stand of the series so far, somehow that egregious overstep doesn’t look like defining the contest. Even though South Africa soon found themselves 157-3 not long after Tea, with two set batsmen in a position to put on a match-defining score, they ended the day marginally behind in the game.

As Elgar took aim at Dom Bess and smeared a swipe straight up in the air, Quinton de Kock did much the same to a Sam Curran slower ball, and van der Dussen hung his bat out to the same bowler, all of a sudden England had a new ball in their hands and the tail to bowl at and without having done anything special to earn it.

Many elements of this story, of course, won’t be unfamiliar to those who have had the mixed pleasure of following England’s Test team in recent months; in fact, they performed their latest virtuoso in mediocrity on day one, when 185-4 and 221-5 became 269 all out, with Ben Stokes’ leading edge to cover when set on 47 the dismissal that summed up their wastefulness.

With Joe Root having won the toss and elected to bat, it seemed a subpar, even series-losing total. Now they are probably just about favourites to level it up. And while they didn’t need to summon the spectacular with the ball, they did do enough to capitalise on any mistakes, and ensure South Africa didn’t get away in the meantime.

Bess bowled 27 overs, with an economy rate lower than any England spinner to bowl as any since March 2018, James Anderson and Stuart Broad did what they’ve always done with both new balls, Curran made things happen, and Stokes gobbled up everything in the slips, equalling the English record for outfield catches in a Test innings.

In a way, England were everything they weren’t in the second innings of the first Test, when a short-ball tactic termed ‘bizarre’ by Nasser Hussain saw them lose the chance to get back into the contest. They weren’t flawless, but they didn’t have to be. On all but the flattest of surfaces, England’s attack is canny enough and skilful enough to be able to keep all but the best batsmen in the world quiet simply by doing what they know, and such is the paucity of batting talent worldwide, that should be enough to keep them in most games. A small uptick in their batting is all it would take for them to start winning those games.

So much of their thinking is geared towards Australia, where a different kind of cricket and cricketer will be needed. But everywhere else bar India, making the most of what they currently possess will be enough.

The frustration for England is that, even as the bar to be competitive remains low, their Test fortunes have slowly ebbed. From being a team who bounced back strongly, who won pretty much every series they played at home and sometimes competed away, they have started losing comfortably to most teams away from home, and their grip on home conditions is starting to slip too.

This then is a reminder, not just of the qualities and the talent inherent in this Test side, but that, should England start getting close to the most out of it, the rewards could come quickly.