Michael Vaughan needed only to cast an envious eye at his rival captain for an example of how to balance the dual responsibilities of opening the innings and leading the side as South Africa established a firm stranglehold on the second Test at Lord's.
Ever since he was appointed as England's Test captain earlier this week, doubts were raised about Vaughan's ability to maintain his prolific form at the top of the order and perform his duties as Nasser Hussain's successor.
He did not need to look far for inspiration with counterpart Graeme Smith entering the record books as the first player in 10 years to record double centuries in successive Tests to establish a 239-run first innings lead with the tourists reaching a commanding 412 for two when bad light ended play with 18 overs of the second day remaining.
Smith's brilliant unbeaten 214, which followed his 277 in the drawn opening Test at Edgbaston, established him as only the fourth batsman in Test history to achieve the feat and the first since India's Vinod Kambli complied 224 against England in Bombay and 227 against Zimbabwe in Delhi in 1992-3.
It also put him in sight of Sir Donald Bradman's aggregate run record for a series of 974, recorded against England in 1930, having taken his tally in only three innings to 576 runs with plenty of opportunity to add to his total before the end of the both the Test and the series.
He has now been at the crease for 18 hours and 42 minutes and his run tally in this series is now only 109 runs short of the whole England team's efforts in three innings but as impressive as those milestones are, perhaps the most eye-catching part of Smith's displays in the last week has been his ability to cope with the pressures of captaincy and also perform brilliantly in his role as opener.
Having failed to make significant scores during South Africa's recent series against Bangladesh, Smith was under considerable pressure entering this series against England to justify his appointment as captain at just 22 years of age.
That was achieved with his efforts at Edgbaston and on Friday, having resumed on 80 with his side only 22 behind on 151 for one, he took his time accumulating his way to another double hundred and firmly establishing South Africa's dominance.
Vaughan, suffering only his second full day in charge, stood at mid-off seemingly helpless to do anything but watch South Africa compile run after run and had to wait until 5.16p.m. - almost 24 hours after their previous success - before he could celebrate England's first breakthrough of the day.
Already frustrated at Hussain's failure to take a straightforward chance at cover point on the opening day when Smith was on eight, the magnitude of that miss was highlighted with every boundary while England's attack proved just as wayward as they had been on the first day.
It took only five overs to edge into the lead and Smith progressed to three figures in seven overs, fittingly reaching three figures by clipping James Anderson for his 16th boundary off his legs.
He had strong support from the experienced Gary Kirsten, who has already recorded two double centuries against England in his prolific career, and their partnership added 247 in 70 overs of total frustration for Vaughan and his young side.
Kirsten was, for long periods, the more threatening of the pair and, while Smith played the anchor role at times, his fellow left-hander was happy to launch into the frequent loose deliveries.
He became the second beneficiary of a missed chance on 54 after pushing loosely at a full-length Andrew Flintoff delivery and edged to Mark Butcher at second slip only to miss another opportunity for a breakthrough.
By then Vaughan must have wondered quite what he had agreed to as captain and he was forced to wait until the introduction of Anthony McGrath as England's seventh bowler before he could enjoy belated success.
Confidence high after his three-wicket haul against Zimbabwe at Lord's earlier this season, McGrath struck in his third over when he induced Kirsten into playing on for a superb 108 and finally give the Lord's crowd some relief from the relentless run-scoring.
Only five more overs were possible before South Africa, possibly because of Smith's aching limbs, elected to take the offer of bad light knowing they still have three days to continue pounding England into submission and continue Vaughan's unhappy start to his captaincy.