When Kevin Pietersen twinkled purposefully down the steps at the head of what used to be Michael Vaughan's team yesterday morning, the great majority of those watching him would have preferred and expected someone else to be in charge. Andrew Strauss probably; Robert Key possibly. Everyone has a view on who should be captaining England, of course, but cricket followers are not by nature vindictive. They are happy to be proved wrong, content to admit that selectors may be better placed than themselves to make such decisions. Only Little Englanders would not have wished KP the very best of British.

And that, of course, is what every England captain has needed. It is one of the oldest of cricketing truths that good captains are lucky ones. Judged on that criterion alone, if his first day is a guide, the selectors have gone for the right man. But a little bit of fortune was nowhere near the half of it.

He had a near-perfect first day in charge, aggressive with his field placings without going over the top, calm when the early wickets his fast bowlers deserved took time to come, pleasingly orthodox about where he placed his men after the over-elaborations beloved of his predecessor in his second phase, sensible about the bowling changes and imposing without being dictatorial in his general approach. Everyone knew that he was in charge, but there was nothing ostentatious. The star with the leading part seemed quite happy to let the other actors shine.

This is the hope of Hugh Morris, Geoff Miller and Peter Moores, managing director, national selector and head coach, the three who become exposed to indignant “I told you so's” if the great public experiment becomes an obvious mistake. Everyone knows that Pietersen has great confidence and rises to a challenge; that he is a serious professional, not the playboy sometimes portrayed; that, being by nature courteous and loquacious, he positively relishes rather than shrinks from the media attention; and that long ago he committed utterly to the land of his adoption.

It took inside knowledge, however, to sense greater maturity and balance since his marriage and to feel that it was not an outrageous gamble that he might grow further with greater responsibility. In particular, “The Ego” must learn to put the needs of the team first at all times, in the process carrying not just the young and impressionable players but the seasoned ones, too.

All of that might be no good without luck. A missed chance from the first ball of the day perhaps suggested otherwise, but it is not every day that a new captain loses a toss he would prefer to have won, then sees his reinstated fast bowler undermine the opposition with a first over as ferocious as any he has bowled since the first day of the Ashes series three years ago. Not every day does the fifth ball of the morning leap back off the seam to hit the opposing captain painfully in the most private part of his anatomy and the sixth climb with such steepling menace that it hits the wicketkeeper in the teeth, although he is standing 20 yards behind the stumps. Not a bad toss to lose, after all, Kevin.

Quite apart from the extra bounce that Stephen Harmison in particular enjoyed from a Brit Oval pitch with a bit more grass on it than sometimes, the first match ball swung throughout South Africa's innings for all four fast bowlers. James Anderson used it well. A fully fit Ryan Sidebottom would have done so, too. When Pietersen brought Monty Panesar on for the first time just before tea, at a point when the fast bowlers had tired a little and A.B.de Villiers was starting to counter-attack, the spinner struck with only his third ball, one that probably would have bounced over the top of the stumps.

Only when the last-wicket pair threatened to hold up England's progress was the new leader's tactical brain seriously stretched. He responded with copybook good sense, giving all his swing bowlers a chance and encouraging them to hit the stumps if they could not find the edge. When that did not come off, he turned to Panesar again and Makhaya Ntini obligingly drove round a straight ball.

During the innings Pietersen had personally occupied just about every place on the field. Not for him Vaughan's regular occupation in the traditional captain's position at mid-off. When he felt the need to counsel a bowler, that is where he went, but at other times he was at a wide slip, leg gully, cover, even square leg. He enjoyed the view from everywhere. So assured a start is only a straw in the wind, of course. Flintoff enjoyed his honeymoon in India, but Australia was very different.

Ultimately, he will be only as good as his team, especially his bowlers. But leadership does matter so much in cricket. Describing the new captain's first appearance from the dressing-room yesterday to his TMS listeners, Jonathan Agnew observed: “Pietersen pauses there for a moment because he's just reached the first tier.” Let's hope it is a long time before the last tear.