Five years ago Kevin Pietersen announced himself as a special batting talent during a major tour of South Africa. Eoin Morgan is now doing the same. Morgan, the hero in England’s win in the first Twenty20 international against South Africa on Friday, speaks modestly about how much he still has to do to cement a place in the national side but the fact is that he has jumped to the front of the queue of Test reserves.

If injury befalls a frontline batsman later in the tour, the strong likelihood is now that Morgan, until now labelled a one-day specialist, would be the man called up as replacement.

No other England batsman of recent vintage except Pietersen himself could have defied orthodoxy in the way Morgan does. This style of play seems particularly effective against South Africa, whose bowlers so often appear unable to think on their feet when under fire.

Morgan tormented them with a mix of the conventional and the downright outrageous during his unbeaten 85 from 44 balls at the Wanderers, just as he did during the Champions Trophy 50-overs match two months ago.

Then, at Centurion – venue for today’s match and like Johannesburg at altitude – he similarly rattled along at two runs per ball, smiting 67 from 34 balls.

“My friends tell me I should be a pilot because I only perform at 5,000 ft,” Morgan quipped. “I want to play Test cricket and get the most of out my talents and test myself against the best. But I’m always learning and certainly have a long way to go.”

Morgan, who now averages 113.50 against South African representative sides, confounded the long-standing theory that England batsmen need greater musculature if they are to score heavily. Morgan is slightly built and stands 5ft 9in yet he hit five sixes on Friday, including one perfectly timed flick that went stratospherically high over midwicket and another that was paddled with iron wrists over fine leg.

Morgan’s aggression highlighted the mental frailty of the South African fast bowlers. Graeme Smith also expressed disappointment at the way Dale Steyn bowled at Jonathan Trott. England’s hopes for the rest of the tour immediately look brighter.

While Morgan was among those who trained at Centurion yesterday, captain Paul Collingwood, who batted almost as well as Morgan on Friday, was among three players who missed the session. Collingwood was suffering from a stiff back, James Anderson rested a sore knee and Graeme Swann a minor side strain.

Meanwhile, a row about funding is set to scupper the International Cricket Council’s new umpiring decision referral system (UDRS) being used in the Test series, which opens in Johannesburg on December 16.

It had been agreed at the ICC’s last annual meeting that where practical all Test series would use the UDRS but several host broadcasters are now raising objections, insisting that they would need reimbursing for the extra costs of providing technological add-ons such as Hawkeye and Hot-Spot. The UDRS has been ruled out of India’s three-Test series with Sri Lanka.

“If the ICC want it, they have to pay for it,” Gerald Majola, chief executive of Cricket South Africa, said. “It will not be used [in the England Tests]. This is between the broadcasters and the ICC. The broadcaster is not prepared to pay the additional costs required. We informed the ICC at the time that we would not be paying for it.”

David Richardson, general manager of the ICC, said he was still hopeful that the system might be used in upcoming series in New Zealand and Australia, where Channel Nine have always provided technological aids as part of its package, as has Sky Sports in Britain.

“We are disappointed,” he said. “We have recently done a lot of work training umpires to use the system. There was a general recognition that we could use this system without de-skilling umpires. Support for it was strong among member countries. This is a problem with existing broadcasting deals which hopefully will not occur in future.”