Watching the bowling speed screen in action live on the ground each day means that I am ignorant of how much it was shown on the television, and of any commentator reaction. I watched the display at the Nursery End avidly. Was there another one at the Pavilion End for the Edrich Stand customers? I don't know. I don't even know how the electronics work. I do know that the information is invaluable to the critic.
Allan Donald bowled the fastest and Paul Adams bowled the slowest at about 90 and 40 miles per hour respectively. That at least gave South Africa an edge when it came to variety. England's top and bottom were more like 85 and 50.
The big surprise was the pace achieved by the South African second-line attack, Klusener and Kallis. They were both over 80 most of the time and on average only a little behind Donald and Pollock.
I chatted to Shaun Pollock's father, Peter, who selects the side, and he put it in a nutshell. ``You need at least three with good pace and then a wrist spinner,'' he said. And on that basis the England attack was found wanting - more like four medium-pacers and a medium pacer.
New to me was the difference in the batsmen's responses to small variations in speed. At 80mph, which seemed to be Angus Fraser's maximum, players on both sides seemed comfortable. At 85, there was much more rush and hurry, let alone 90. Even at 83 it was noticeable that time was not on the batsman's side.
Ninety miles per hour translates to 132 feet per second. The pitch measures one chain - 22 yards or 66 feet. Thus the ball takes just half a second from wicket to wicket.
Actually, the bowler releases the ball over his front foot on the batting crease at one end and the batsman plays it somewhere near the batting crease at his end, reducing the distance to, say, 60 feet, which would take 0.46 seconds. At 80mph this goes up to 0.51 seconds, five hundredths of a second slower, which, on the face of it, hardly explains the difference in the way the ball is played.
More striking is the difference in the distance the ball travels at these relative speeds. At 90mph the batsman is playing the ball where at 80it would still have some six or seven feet to travel.
Lessons for the England side are these: if Robert Croft is going to retain his place and have any impact on the series, he will have to bowl much more slowly, to give the ball a chance to turn and to give the batsman options. Once there is time to think there is the chance to make a mistake.
Dean Headley must bowl faster. He proved he has it in him to be an 85mph-plus bowler rather than his current 80-plus. When Donald came in, with a questionable show of bravado, Headley increased his pace noticeably. An old stager, Tom Graveney, couldn't believe he would be so silly as to wind up the opposition.
The point is that if Headley can find that 'extra yard of pace' (a long-used phrase which now carries much more meaning for me) for the tail-enders, then he should find it for the better players as well.
Watching Angus Fraser trying to bowl down the slope with a wide mid-on and two long legs was an exercise beyond my patience and understanding. It meant that all his good stuff was directed too wide on the off-side to be of any harm to the opposition. Then there was Croft bowling them in rather than having a chance of bowling them out.
So Lord's, as usual, was a disaster. Unlike some critics, I was already worried by England's missed opportunities at Edgbaston. Allowing Adams to bowl 40 overs for 80 runs and then failing to declare on the second evening gave strong negative vibes. To me the swagger of hitting out in the second innings was only put on after the position seemed already safe. It really is time for the England captain to take charge, take risks and take the fight to the enemy.