That is the way to go and in doing so he made a statement on what he thought the rest were capable of. Only Yuvraj will know how bad the pain was but it must have been excruciating enough to warrant missing a game a day after playing the innings of his life.

When he plays like he did against England you marvel at his skill because there is little doubt that he is a special cricketer. In a team that has Sehwag and Dhoni in it, he stands aside for the smoothness of his hitting. Yuvraj was born to win matches and it can be a bit frustrating to see the intervals between such efforts. In the shorter versions of the game he now has to assume responsibility as the lead batsman even if it means batting permanently at number 3 or 4. Not for the first time in his life, the big step upward is tugging at his collar.

There are a great couple of days in prospect as international cricket’s youngest child takes centre-stage. But the team most equipped to win in the conditions here will have no part to play. South Africa’s extraordinary self-strangulation is an excellent case study on what fear can do. It is difficult to quantify but one of the great truths of sport is that beyond the team list and the statistics and the records, there is always fear in the other camp.