The good china came out at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Monday. On Sunday, visitors to the vast venue were served their chai in common or garden paper cups. A day later, much the same servers served much the same people their chai in delicate gilt and green cups and saucers that were etched with a wispy floral motif. The irony painted on the bottom was just as delicious as the contents of the cup - this china was "made in India".

It was oh so genteel. Unlike what happened in the middle in the men's T20 World Cup match between South Africa and Canada.

Dilpreet Bajwa, in only his second ever match as captain at any level and his first in the role as an international, won the toss and declined to expose his batters to Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen, with Kagiso Rabada and Corbin Bosch to come. It was, to be fair, a tough choice. Would you - a bowler from a country where there are millions more ice-hockey pucks than people who play, watch or have ever heard of cricket - want to mark out a run-up with Aiden Markram itching at one end and Quinton de Kock twitching at the other?

So Kaleem Sana could be forgiven for starting the match with a delivery to Markram that had more chance of hitting first slip than the stumps. He bowled two more wides in the over. In the second over, Markram accepted Dilon Heyliger's generous offer of a wide half-volley and sent it screaming through the covers for four. Another followed in the same over, whipped square.

Then Kaleem Sana had De Kock dropped at short third and Markram flayed a flat, furious six off Jaskaran Singh. Three more wides and five more fours followed, and South Africa reached 66 without loss in the powerplay. Some spoke of the number of the beast. But there were challenges.

"It was difficult because we haven't seen much of them,' Ngidi said. "I was able to see a few of their [previous] games, and we looked at the 2024 [T20] World Cup. "But it was pretty trial and error."

The smidgen of a semblance of a contest that had hung in the haze at the start of the match disappeared like a cup of chai down a throat. With it went, it seemed, at least some of the South Africans' focus. De Kock was flummoxed by the flight and bowled by Bajwa. Markram and Ryan Rickelton got out practising their range hitting, the former to a fine running catch on the long-on boundary. Dewald Brevis slashed across the line at Ansh Patel and skied a catch to extra cover.

It took an unbroken stand of 75 off 39 to drag South Africa to 200. Their 213/4 is the highest total in the tournament's nine matches, but soon after the start of the innings it had looked like they might veer close to 300. Maybe they lost the beast's number.

Still, the runs they made would be ample. Especially after the first ball of Canada's reply - a perfect outswinger from Ngidi that laid a grandmother's kiss on the edge of Bajwa's bat on its way into De Kock's gloves. Yuvraj Samra and Nicholas Kirton stood tall to bash four fours between them, but by the end of his second over the wily, guily, slippery Ngidi had removed them, too, for figures of 3/13. Unusually, although understandably, Ngidi was granted a third consecutive over - and might have claimed another had he not slipped and crashed to earth as he attempted to catch, in the throes of his followthrough, Shreyas Movva's uppish defensive bunt.

"You do the skills that you do best - swing the ball in the powerplay, challenge them up front, try to keep it as simple as possible," Ngidi said.

What made him a threat with the new ball?

"A bit of bounce, presenting the seam well, and then being able to bowl slower balls in the powerplay. The guys never know what's coming next. It's about keeping them guessing but also being very accurate."

Rabada yorked Movva in the sixth to reduce Canada to 45/4, and all concerned knew there was no turning back. But first we had to meander through another 14.2 overs of a glorified training session, in which Navneet Dhaliwal and Harsh Thaker shared 69 off 53, Dhaliwal made 64 off 49, and Ngidi returned to complete a haul of 4/31 before South Africa won by 57 runs.

Which is not to disparage anyone involved. Before Monday, the Canadians hadn't played a match for 159 days - during which the South Africans were on the field on 37 days or parts thereof in all formats.

Canadians who have never heard of this strange game should know that their team did not disgrace themselves. They didn't look like rodeo clowns. They looked, and played, like the real cricketers they are. Don't take our word for that. Here's Ngidi:

"I think they did very well tonight. With the bowling, they were able to apply pressure and they got four wickets in the middle period. That's world-class for any team. And then for us to have them four down in the powerplay and them still being able to bat out their 20 overs, they can be very proud of what they did tonight."

Canada were victims of a collision between the game's separate and unequal worlds, between cultures where cricket doesn't stick out as weird and where people wonder why you don't just play ice-hockey like everyone else.

It's what happens when paper cups are put next to fine china.