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This was as good a time as any for England to play the tournament favourites: two relatively easy victories over Kenya and Sri Lanka gave them the confidence missing after Sharjah. Moreover, to win the World Cup England will have to know themselves under pressure, and much better to find out early rather than too late. South Africa pushed them to the limits early on and questions were answered.

England were under the cosh for the first time in the tournament. Herschelle Gibbs and Gary Kirsten gave South Africa a dream start, posting 111 for the first wicket. Angus Fraser, rightly recalled to the team, had a rude awakening in his first World Cup start at the age of 33, as he was hoisted high over long on for six by Gibbs. When can his first seven overs have last gone for 44 runs?

At the first drinks break the creases on the England captain's face would have been deep and furrowed, and had Gibbs and Kirsten been wired up to the South Africa coach, no doubt they would have heard him purring with pleasure. In truth, though, England had not bowled badly, but they were looking at a South African score in excess of 250 and wickets were desperately needed.

Would Alec Stewart look to Darren Gough for the breakthrough or rely on containment and frustration to build pressure and bring their rewards? In the end it was the underrated Mark Ealham who answered his captain's call.

There is nothing spectacular about Ealham, except that consistently he does what is required. Through a mixture of wicket-to-wicket bowling and clever changes of pace he brought England back into the game. He probably has the best slower ball in the England team, due to the fact that there is no discernible change of hand action, as he merely drags his hand down the back of the ball.

You could sense the pressure building on Gibbs. Keen to attack, he almost couldn't understand why he could not dominate this unremarkable English seamer. Ultimately it was his downfall; he swung another frustratingly straight ball from Ealham down Graeme Hick's throat at square leg. England had the breakthrough and were on their way.

No doubt Stewart's initial plan had been to bowl Fraser straight through. Showing his flexibility, he whipped Fraser out of the attack and brought back Alan Mullally. The breeze by this stage was helping his inswing and the biting wind of the morning had gone as the sun warmed up the arena. Suddenly the ball, which had done nothing, started to swing and the South Africans, as we saw last summer, are vulnerable to the moving ball.

Ealham removed Kirsten with an inside edge, after which Mullally produced a gem to dismiss Jacques Kallis. Daryll Cullinan then lofted Mullally's last ball to Fraser. All of a sudden, the upper order had gone and England had the ascendancy. At no stage again did South Africa dominate proceedings: Andrew Flintoff made his first real contribution of the tournament, dismissing Hansie Cronje, and Gough's continued excellence at 'the death' made sure Ealham's good work was not wasted.

The turnaround inspired by Mullally and Ealham answered certain questions and will have ramifications. It is all very well seeing a team on top, as England had emphatically been against Sri Lanka and Kenya. Here we were seeing their reaction to adversity, and no team win a one-day tournament without having to come through difficult periods.

This was the best wicket we have seen so far in the tournament and therefore the sternest examination of England's bowlers. In the last World Cup we really struggled to take wickets mid-innings to slow down the rate and this was the danger here - that on a good wicket, after the opposition had got a good start, England's back-up bowlers would wilt. That they did not, and restricted South Africa to an eminently gettable 226, augurs well.

Kallis, taking the new ball, dismissed Stewart and Nasser Hussain before England had 10 on the board. This brought Graham Thorpe to the crease for his first innings in this tournament and he immediately looked in good touch, working Shaun Pollock, who is having an ominously quiet time, neatly off his legs, before Allan Donald caught him on the crease.

England, perhaps, were paying for their convincing earlier victories as this was a difficult situation for Thorpe, Fairbrother and Flintoff to be having their first knocks for a fortnight.