SA's batting reeks of cricketing criminality of unfinished business

A framed black-and-white photograph hangs among eight others on a wall of the press' temporary situation at Newlands. It is of Jacques Kallis on the hook. All that touches the ground, a good 15 centimetres behind the crease, is the toe-end of his right boot. His left leg is almost straight out in front of him, kicking the air can-can style, the toe-end of that boot at his eye level.

His head has swivelled to face backward square leg. His hands have whipped through the shot and are about to reach the equator drawn from the point of his left shoulder. The look in his eyes is of a gnarled boxer who has landed the left hook of his life. Mercifully, the ball has fled the scene.

Only then does it hit you: he's in whites! Jacques Kallis has played this outrageous stroke, this thing of visceral, lasting power, this immaculate confection of ambition and impossibility... in a Test match!

Even in its static, two-dimensional form, the photograph is a sight much richer and rewarding than what was going on out the window in lurid full colour. South Africa were playing their first match in 265 days at Newlands on Friday: a T20 against England, which will be followed by two more and then three ODIs.

The total in attendance, players, umpires, scorers and all, was 306. And six Egyptian geese, who made determined but foiled attempts to cross the pitch while South Africa were putting up 179/6, the fourth-highest first innings in the 20 T20Is played here and the home side's second-biggest at this ground.

It was also 25 runs more than South Africa scored when they beat England in September 2007 - the only one of the three day-night T20Is played at this ground won by the side batting first.

But that was when T20 cricket was as new as Test cricket seems old now. So the target should have been significantly bigger. Of the South Africans dismissed, only format debutant George Linde, who was yorked by Tom Curran with the last ball of the innings, wasn't charitable with his wicket.

Worse, Quinton de Kock gave his away with a blip to cover to end a steady march to 30, Faf du Plessis looked like he had been batting for weeks - which he has - before holing out to square leg for 58, and Rassie van der Dussen had forged flintily to 37 when he slapped a full toss to deep backward square. South Africa's batting reeked of the cricketing criminality of unfinished business.

The geese stalked the outfield throughout England's reply, seemingly unalarmed when Jason Roy left the field in a flurry of F-words after trying to sweep the second ball of the innings - bowled by Linde - and edging to de Kock, and didn't flinch when Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan also got out inside the first six overs. Neither did Ben Stokes' picking out Linde on the long-on fence in the 15th, after clipping 37 off 27, to end a stand of 85 with Jonny Bairstow, ruffle their feathers.

Maybe they knew Bairstow was up for the fight. His combative 86 not out, a performance worthy of a fiery, bearded redhead, kept England on top throughout an innings that wobbled this way and that. Bairstow faced 48 balls and hit 60 of his runs in fours and sixes. And he hit them properly, none more so than the one-handed drive he sent scurrying through the coves for four despite Beuran Hendricks' low full toss swinging away late.

Perhaps the geese also knew that, with neither of allrounders Andile Phehlukwayo and Dwaine Pretorius in the XI, Heinrich Klaasen would be called on to bowl for the first time in his 12 T20Is, that he would bowl to Stokes and Bairstow, and that his single over would cost 14 runs.

And that Hendricks would lose the plot in a nightmarish 17th over that started with England needing 51. When it ended, they needed 23. Two singles, three fours and a six was bad enough, but what melted South Africa's hopes was the eight wides - five of them off one delivery that hit the ground for the first time somewhere in the outfield on its way to the fine leg fence. The geese, along with every South Africa supporter, knew from the start it was a dumb idea to leave out Anrich Nortje.

If Hendricks needs a shoulder to cry on, he has Du Plessis', who said: "In T20 cricket you're guaranteed that someone is going to go on the night. As a leader, I wouldn't look into it too much if one guy goes for runs. That's the nature of the beast. Tomorrow he could bowl in the exact same areas and he gets a five-for. I wouldn't judge him too harshly. Tonight wasn't his night, and they played well against him."

Bairstow clinched England's five-wicket win with four balls to spare: a six arched towards the building site beyond long-on. It was a handsome stroke without being special, a way to get the job done rather than a blow that will be frozen in a frame to arrest all who see it. Jacques Kallis would have approved, but not been impressed.