We discovered rather more about Kevin Pietersen’s captaincy skills yesterday. For a start, it transpires that he can’t control the weather. After a slightly delayed start, the rain began again shortly before lunch and did not let up, hurting England’s prospects of a consolation victory in the final npower Test of an extraordinarily turbulent summer on and off the field.

There could be more difficulties ahead. In the 80 minutes of play that were possible, South Africa lost only one wicket, that of Neil McKenzie, while reducing their deficit from 85 to 12. Timing the ball sublimely, Hashim Amla shaped ominously well in racing along to 71, adding 45 off 56 balls with nine more boundaries.

Pietersen resorted to a plan his predecessor had tried at Lord’s, attacking Amla with short balls from round the wicket, posting a leg slip and two men out for the hook. This time Andrew Flintoff was the bowler, whereas at Lord’s it was James Anderson, but the outcome was equally barren. Tricky business, this captaincy.

Amla appeared most at risk against Anderson, nearly dragging an inswinger into his stumps before relieving the pressure with two leg-side boundaries as Anderson strove for similar deliveries. Amla had other moments of luck, chopping Steve Harmison’s first ball near his stumps and being put down by Tim Ambrose on 58 off an inside edge (a difficult chance that the wicketkeeper did well to get his damaged left hand to). But his good fortune was overdue, Amla having been the victim of two unkind lbw decisions in this series.

Pietersen did enjoy one coup. Pulling Anderson out of the attack, he replaced him with Stuart Broad, whose fourth ball drew McKenzie into a drive and took the inside edge en route to uprooting middle stump. Pietersen immediately summoned Flintoff for the entrance of Jacques Kallis, but there was little opportunity for Flintoff to torment his old foe before the rain returned.

The next two days will test the resolution of both sides. England are naturally keen to show they have rediscovered their direction after Michael Vaughan’s confused and sterile second spell as captain. South Africa, if they are serious about challenging Australia, need to show that they can again scrap their way out of a difficult situation. The fact that the series is already won should be no excuse. Today much will depend on Amla and Kallis, for whom another failure would leave him nursing his worst series average for 11 years.

South Africa, who have never won a Test at The Oval in 12 previous visits, could yet set England a challenging target, perhaps one not dissimilar to the 281 they themselves ran down in Birmingham. On a dry surface, they might wish they had a better spinner than Paul Harris, but even he is capable of causing England embarrassment.

The balance of this England XI is the best it has been in the series. This looks close to the strongest attack, although it leaves the batting looking heavily reliant on genius from Pietersen and grit from elsewhere. It now seems agreed, with Vaughan gone, that Flintoff at No 6 is the least worst option, but with him, Ambrose and several frontline batsmen in uncertain form, you would not fancy them chasing more than 230. Micky Arthur, the South Africa coach, thinks 200 to 220 could be defendable.

Peter Moores, the England coach, who last night wore the look of a man haunted by a week of implied criticism and unfavourable dressing-room leaks, has been accused of being too “in your face” with his batsmen, but as an explanation for their repeated underachievements this smacks of lazy excuse-making. And if the batsmen really wanted to get away from his “pressure”, you would have thought they might have tried spending more time in the middle.

If England win from here, it will be a remarkable effort from a group of players whose minds must be spinning more than any ball Harris could deliver from the events of the past seven days. Once again, though, Pietersen has displayed his great gift at the crease for blocking out external distractions – the fuss of the captaincy here, the frenzied anticipation of regaining the Ashes on this same ground three years ago, when he blazed to 158. Strategy and man-management will be his challenges, not batting.

Being thrust into the captaincy at such short notice, Pietersen has been dealt a difficult hand, but it is a decision that the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) did not take in haste, despite the suddenness of Vaughan’s resignation.

Giles Clarke, the ECB chairman, insisted that the board had not been hurried into a decision, citing its policy of “succession planning” with regard to all major posts and indicating that Pietersen had been identified as next in line late last year during the Sri Lanka tour.

“I’m certain that Hugh Morris [managing director of the England team] had long ago addressed what would happen if Michael Vaughan or Paul Collingwood were to go [as captains of the Test and one-day teams],” Clarke said yesterday. “There was nothing frantic about last weekend’s response to Michael’s resignation. Hugh, Peter Moores and Geoff Miller [the national selector] just needed to be certain Michael had really thought through what he was doing.”

This argument was supported by Pietersen’s admission in an interview in the latest issue of The Wisden Cricketer that Vaughan had on recent occasions said to him, “When you’re captain . . .”

The selectors have much to consider between now and September 30 (when they are due to name the Test party for India and a new round of central contracts) and not just what a lousy summer they have had. The hangman’s noose is around Ambrose’s neck (“he needs a score in the second innings”, Moores conceded), while Andrew Strauss stands at the foot of the gallows. Vaughan’s stated aim of returning to the Test XI must be firmly rebuffed by Miller. Retirement could quickly follow.

Vaughan, 33, might – might – have another couple of years left at international level, but his capability with the bat is not now the main issue, although there are younger men who probably merit runs in the side ahead of him. Vaughan the batsman should be ignored because Pietersen needs time and space to create his own team, and in particular to cultivate his views about what should be done with bowlers such as Ryan Sidebottom and Simon Jones. The last thing he needs is Vaughan sitting in the corner of the dressing room raising the occasional eyebrow. This would create the same problem Vaughan had with his predecessor during the first nine months of his captaincy, when Nasser Hussain did not toe the line as well as he might have. Vaughan has already spent one tour getting under a captain’s feet (Flintoff’s, in Australia).

Were Vaughan to go to India, he would have to prepare along with other Test specialists by touring there first with the England Lions, and that too might prove an unwelcome distraction.

The powers that be, though, have been kind to Vaughan since he returned from injury. When he resigned as one-day captain after the 2007 World Cup debacle (which he rather too firmly blamed on Flintoff’s escapade in a pedalo), they replaced him with his close friend Paul Collingwood and let Vaughan keep charge of the Test team, even though, as we know, there is little appetite anywhere for a split captaincy. Vaughan proceeded to champion Collingwood’s questionable claims to succeed him as Test captain. Eight months later, Ashley Giles, another friend of Vaughan’s, was appointed a selector even though he was director of cricket at Warwickshire, a conflict of interest that was finally challenged last week when Gloucestershire formally complained to the ECB.

There have been accusations of protectionism regarding the England batting, but it is among some of the management that the true cosiness has lain. If relations between captain and coach were shaky, it may have been because Moores had already sensed what Vaughan finally acknowledged last week – his time was up.