The ‘captain's knock' cliché is one of the most hackneyed in the sporting lexicon. For a start, the likelihood is that most captains will be the best batsman in the side, or close to, and definitely the player most confident of their own selection (even more so now considering Australia's is an agent of the selection process) meaning they should be expected to score the most runs. Secondly, the idea that Michael Clarke, somewhere during the split-second between Dale Steyn snorting fire and asking rhetorical questions about his parentage, would consider, "hang on, time for a captain's knock, move your front foot closer to the pitch of the ball," is fanciful.

However, Wednesday's 107 not out, from just 114 balls, in demanding conditions, could be one of the rare occasions where the stereotype does save time. For reasons bad, as well as good.

Let's start with the good.

Clarke batted superbly while all around him, with the exception of Shaun Marsh, did not. A malevolent Steyn issued an over of near unplayable deliveries to induct him into the contest. The Aussie skipper did well merely to preserve his compliment of tattoos, and the limbs on which they are etched. But he did more than that. He latched onto seemingly every bad delivery. He stared down Steyn and then accelerated past the supporting cast, notably Jacques Kallis and Imran Tahir. Like a freeway driver selecting the right lane, he smoothly went through the gears while colleagues hit the skids around him.

By the close, Clarke, Australia's number five, had scored exactly half his side's total at as good as a run a ball, and became one of the youngest ever batsmen to pass the 5,000 Test runs landmark. He did so with an average and century tally near identical to Adam Gilchrist.

Clarke's application deserves praise in its own right, but it would be wrong not to afford it even greater acclaim for the maelstrom that acted as its backdrop. In Clarke's short time as captain he has seen the removal of his coach, entire selection panel, the introduction of a new General Manager of high performance while his own abilities have been scrutinised mercilessly in the wake of Simon Katich refusing to let sleeping Pups lie.

And now for the bad.

As good as Clarke's innings was, he had the misfortune to reach his century at around 6pm in Cape Town - 3am on Australia's East Coast. Thus the number of fans who actually completed the vigil to witness the bat raise and helmet removal will be tiny.

More unfortunately, that number will contain a tiny fraction of the Australian captain's detractors, who will now be the subject of a barrage of stories in the media along the lines of ‘why is handsome, young, talented, successful, metrosexual Michael Clarke so unloved by pallid middle-aged Australian men?' This is the same Clarke that scored a century on debut - in India - and has scored half his Test centuries away from home, including two of his three ‘Daddy Hundreds.'

If only Clarke learns to acquire Steve Waugh's timing. A lean 2002 looked to be forcing the hamstrung skipper into retirement but one of the most iconic Ashes centuries, completed off the final ball of the second day's play in front of an adoring home crowd and TV watching millions secured another calendar year in the job and a lifetime of Johnnie Walker.

The first day's play of this series, despite extending to just 55 overs was worth the lack of sleep.

Graeme Smith invited Australia to bat first on a wicket that behaved like a child after too much squash. It began hyperactive and capricious, buying the opening pair and forcing endless false shots. It then crashed, Clarke getting busy during its mid-afternoon nap.

Dale Steyn, the game's premium fast bowler opened the delayed proceedings, salivating like a cartoon bulldog eyeing a comedy bone. He confirmed that Shane Watson is not an opening batsman, that Ricky Ponting is a force on the wane, that Shaun Marsh worked bloody hard for his 44 and that Brad Haddin is no longer the best batsman wicketkeeper, nor the best wicketkeeper batsman in Australia.

The fare was almost as antisocial from the other end, where Vernon Philander, on debut, suggested that right now Phil Hughes would not regain his place for NSW ahead of David Warner, Nic Maddinson or, the young whippersnapper, Simon Katich; before returning to snuff out the thoughts of an Australian renaissance with the wickets of Mitchell Johnson and Ryan Harris.

Morne Morkel bowled spells of inaccurate lifters that, from his altitude, resembled bouncing bombs from the movie adaptation of the great WWII tale of The Dam Busters. Incidentally, the real life campaign the movie was based on was called Operation Chastise, an appropriate description of Morkel's contribution to Australia's first innings.

Imran Tahir should not be judged on his first six-overs of Test leg-spin. He will be grateful of that half-dozen to ease him into his Test career on a pitch where he is not expected to cause trouble. Jacques Kallis was unfamiliarly affable, perhaps as a consequence of sharing Mark Bosnich's barber and David Boon's personal trainer.

The Proteas will be the happier of the two sides a tenth of the way into this criminally short series. It is Michael Clarke though who will enjoy the plaudits after his captain-courageous performance, leading from the front, single-handedly keeping South Africa at bay in a timely captain's knock.