Some days the selectors can smile. Today was one of them - for the English selectors, that is.
They love it when their faith is justified. At Lord's they could beam in public as the much-criticised Ian Bell delivered his brilliant 199 or Stuart Broad hit a career best 76. They might even be prepared to articulate their delight.
But what they will never admit - and nor should they- is their quiet satisfaction when the right men fail. This sounds callous. It may be callous. But it was also the case on Friday.
Here's the scenario that the selectors can never admit: Andrew Flintoff is coming back, quite possibly for the second Test. So something has to give. Geoff Miller, for the first time in seven matches, will have to name a changed side. They need somebody to drop.
Despite the bluster of the spring Flintoff has to be part of a five-man attack. On pitches as flat as Lord's a case of criminal negligence might be brought if England sent out Flintoff as part of a four-man attack. That path leads him straight back to the physio's couch.
So a batsman has to go. It can't be Bell; it can't be Michael Vaughan - he's the captain. It has to be Paul Collingwood, who has been in grotesque Test form throughout this summer. But what if he also scores runs on Mick Hunt's batting paradise? He doesn't.
It's not even Collingwood's fault. Umpire Billy Bowden makes a poor decision and he's given caught at bat/pad. For some reason umpires are far more likely to raise their finger when the ball travels swiftly into a close fielder's hands and that's what happened to Collingwood. If Mark Ramprakash had been the batsman, the umpire might have been reminded that he was dabbling with someone's career (Ramprakash memorably mentioned this to Darrell Hair a few years ago on his way back to the pavilion). We all admire Collingwood's virtues as a cricketer and a person. But he is the man to go.
And he's not the only one. The return of Flintoff might undermine England's batting depth, at least in the short term. The 2005 colossus has not scored runs consistently for a while, mainly because he has not batted much for a while. We should not expect too many from him if he plays at Headingley. Perhaps he should bat at seven. But Tim Ambrose at six? No thanks.
After his troubles in the one-day series, Ambrose failed in white today. Crossing their fingers and toes the selectors will be tempted by a return for Matt Prior, who could realistically bat at six, while Flintoff continues his rehabilitation. It's just his keeping that scares the selectors. So Ambrose's failure was rather convenient too.
Of course, Geoff Miller could never acknowledge all this. He can just smile enigmatically. Which is more than the South Africans can manage after their attack has been so easily neutered. We have witnessed a very flat attack, albeit on a very flat pitch. Already Makhaya Ntini, for example, must be wondering whether he will be invited to play a full part in this series. The benign South African coach, Mickey Arthur, smiled a lot before the series when the topic of his pace attack was raised. Not any more.
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