A man walked up to a group of people wearing accreditation badges standing outside Newlands on Thursday. He asked her hopefully, “What cricket is tomorrow?”

“A Test,” he was told, “South Africa against Pakistan.”

He looked deflated. “Ah,” he said, pointing with his thumb at the woman with him. “I can’t make her do it.” Apparently he took this opinion as a self-evident truth: she is obviously a woman. Therefore, and equally obviously, she had no interest in Test cricket.

She smiled kindly. He continued – guessed? – their walk along Campground Road. She followed.

What should we make of this? That women, or at least some women and in the estimation of some men, don’t watch Test cricket? Or that some people, regardless of gender, don’t like watching Test cricket?

Having said that, how could someone who appeared to be a bit of a cricket person walk past one of the game’s most famous locations and not know what would happen there less than 24 hours later?

The truth of this was elusive, and the woman and man were out of sight before these questions came to their minds.

But here’s an irrefutable fact: Friday’s game was riveting in a way that kept much of the country’s most distracting crowd in stitches – “Oh, the mountain!” Oh, the beautiful weather! Oh, aren’t we at the Gods’ gift to cricket? grounds all over the world! Oh, he’s out!” – They watch more of the game than they otherwise would have.

They were pinned down from the first ball of the game by Mohammad Abbas, who pushed Aiden Markram into the goal area. Nitin Menon is the best umpire in the game right now, but even he is unlikely to ambush anyone with the opening assist of a Test. Shan Masood checked properly and the players said the ball would bounce off the off-stump. But not enough to change Menon’s decision.

Barely half an hour later, Sayim Ayub, who scored two centuries in three innings in the ODI series between the teams last month, left the field in a buggy after injuring his ankle while fielding near the long-on boundary had.

South Africa lost Markram, Wiaan Mulder and Tristan Stubbs in the 45 deliveries before lunch, all to loss shots.

Seven overs before tea, Ryan Rickelton hit a long throw from Mohammad Abbas with a cover drive that was as sacred as it was profane for four. That took Rickelton to 99. Temba Bavuma hit 11 of the next 14 balls before Salman Agha presented a full toss onto Rickelton’s pads, which was duly sent to the fine leg boundary for four.

Rickelton’s unbeaten 176 was the second century in his 17 Test innings and his second in five trips to the crease. And he is at his most fluid, his blade gleaming boldly in the summer sun. There’s something magical about a left-handed hitter intentionally jumping onto the front foot, and Rickelton has that quality in spades.

Newlands has seen him do this more often than other stadiums. This is Rickelton’s third first-class game here – and his third century here. One can imagine that he might not have played in Tests for the first time or opened the batting line-up had Tony de Zorzi not been ruled out with a hamstring strain.

Bavuma, who batted slower but also more solidly than Rickelton, reached his fourth century with a single to square leg off Aamer Jamal in the sixth over before stumps.

In January 2016, he scored his first score on the same ground, 102, in his eighth innings against England. Eighty-eight innings passed before he scored another hundred, 172, against West Indies at the Wanderers in March 2023. In Bavuma’s last dozen innings, he scored three centuries. Those 12 trips to the crease also produced scores of 86, 70, 78 and 66. Apparently the captain agrees – after 15 innings at the helm his average is 57.78.

Bavuma’s final century sent him into a celebration as feverish as his batting was not. He took off his helmet and ran deep into the outfield towards the Kelvin Grove End, pumping with both elbows, dropped to one knee, got back up and pumped and hurled his bat without – thankfully – letting go. It was hard to tell if he was angry or happily angry. 19 balls later he took a more gentle approach, pushed forward to Agha and was caught by him.

Bavuma and Rickelton, huddled together by the late wicket tangle before lunch, shared 235 – South Africa’s biggest fourth wicket stand against Pakistan and the biggest of all for that wicket at Newlands.

The first record to be broken stands since Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers scored 179 points in Abu Dhabi in November 2010. The second has been on the books since January 1938, when Wally Hammond and Les Ames added 197 points.

And in the middle of it all lay the real star of the show. Last January, after a Test against India that lasted 107 overs, curator Braam Mong was rightly criticized for producing what the tabloids might have described as a mongrel of a pitch.

Newlands took this debacle as seriously as they did themselves. They drilled into the surface to take core samples that showed no problems underground. This meant that the proof of this pudding lay in its preparation.

Speculation that the Newlands ODI against Pakistan last month might be moved to Paarl – Cape Town’s little brother for all intents and purposes – to avoid embarrassment has been roundly dismissed. So when reporters turned up at Newlands for that game, a senior Western Province official gave one of them a sharp look and said: “Shouldn’t you be in Paarl?”

Every day in the wine regions of Paarl is a good day. But Friday at Newlands, where South Africa scored 316/4, was as close to perfect as cricket can be for the home team and their fans. Even Pakistan would agree. The pitch was of central importance in every respect.

If you can’t take anyone to a day of cricket like this, do the rest of us a favor and stay at home.