Yorkshire CCC star Dawid Malan furthers his claims for a place in England's World Cup XI

But Dawid Malan is by no means sure to be playing for England at the World Cup in India in October.

Such is the strength of England’s white-ball side, Malan faces competition from such as Jason Roy, Phil Salt and even Alex Hales to open the batting alongside Jonny Bairstow, his Yorkshire team-mate.

He could not be doing more to advance his claims, Malan making a magnificent 118 in the third and final one-day international in Kimberley, where England gained a 59-run consolation victory after South Africa won the first two matches.

It was Malan’s third century in 15 ODI appearances (14 of them inside the last two years) and one of his finest innings for England.

Granted, he was dropped twice - on 27 by a leaping Reeza Hendricks at mid-wicket from a pull shot off leg-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, and on 46 by Shasmi diving full length to his right in an effort to pouch a caught-and-bowled chance.

Neither was an easy opportunity, though, and did not mask the quality or significance of Malan’s display.

On an initially tacky surface which became better for batting, it was one which helped England from 14-3 inside six overs to a closing total of 346-7, Malan sharing a fourth-wicket stand of 232 in 35 overs with Jos Butter, who struck 131, England’s fourth-highest partnership in ODI cricket.

If you were picking a World Cup XI tomorrow, it would be extremely difficult to leave out Malan.

This is someone who consistently delivers at the highest level, a player often typecast as a slow starter but one who can pace his innings with the best of them.

It was interesting, not to say instructive, that Malan and Buttler both reached their hundreds from 106 balls, perhaps the ultimate compliment to Malan’s stroke-making ability and flexibility.

But for his trademark single-mindedness on Wednesday, with the left-hander openly admitting that it was difficult to get the ball off the square initially due to conditions, England could easily have panicked and folded, say, to 150 all-out.

Instead, they rallied to a final score so seemingly far-fetched that even Hans Christian Andersen might have deemed it fanciful; England had been 20-3 after the 10-over powerplay, for goodness sake.

But that is why Malan is such a good player - and such a good option for England at the World Cup, especially when surrounded by so many power-hitting types.

The 35-year-old can give it a whack with the best of them, of course - there were six sixes and seven fours in his 114-ball innings (Buttler hit seven sixes and six fours in his 127-ball stay) – but there is so much more to his game than brute force, not least the ability to adapt and assess the match situation.

Malan is certainly the man in form; this was more precisely his third ODI century in his last nine innings to go with 59 in the opening match of the series in Bloemfontein.

For Jason Roy, though, the series was literally a case of one step forward, two steps back: after ending a run of low scores with 113 in the opening fixture, Roy followed up with innings of nine and one, leaving him pretty much back to square one and the jury still out.

There is time for Roy to come again; England have 10 more ODIs before the World Cup (three in Bangladesh, followed by four against New Zealand and three against Ireland in the English summer).

For Hales to force his way into contention, however, one suspects that he will have to appear in at least some of the summer’s ODIs – not least because he has not played in any format longer than 20 overs since 2019.

That there are myriad choices cannot be disputed, and with Bairstow, Joe Root and perhaps even Ben Stokes to come back into the World Cup side, should Stokes choose to reverse his ODI retirement, England will once more be heavily fancied.

Not least if they can keep Jofra Archer on the park for any length of time.

After a near two-year lay-off, the pace man is back and firing on all cylinders, returning 6-40 – career-best international figures and his maiden ODI five-fer – as England made comfortable work of this game in the hand.

Archer ripped the heart out of South Africa’s innings, capturing the key wicket of Heinrich Klaasen, who top-scored with 80, just when South Africa were looking threatening at 278-6 in the 40th over, and he was well supported by Adil Rashid, who returned 3-68.

In Archer and Rashid, England have the high pace and top-class leg-spin commonly regarded as X-factor qualities.

They will be key performers at the World Cup.

As for Malan, he would simply be happy to be there and part of the XI.

On this evidence, he offers an awful lot to a side that has pretty much all bases covered.