Faf du Plessis was in good humour on Friday, and why not. His flight home to Cape Town had arrived on time. He would soon be home with his family. His hipster hair didn't look as if it had spent hours on a plane.
There was nonetheless something wrong with this picture: Du Plessis' right arm was in a sling, a reminder of his crash to Pallekele's earth last Sunday that took him out of the last two one-day internationals and sole T20 of SA's tour to Sri Lanka.
Torn shoulder tendons will sideline him for up to six weeks, perhaps removing him from the home ODIs and T20s against Zimbabwe in September and October.
So, unlike the horse who walks into a bar, why not the long face?
Because SA's captain has left a team who have recovered from being thrashed in the Test series well enough to win the one-day rubber at the earliest opportunity.
And with a World Cup coming, ready or not, in less than 10 months - or 292 days - if your team is winning who cares what your hair looks like?
JP Duminy has dipped deeply into a new well of conviction after running all but dry of the stuff in England last year, Reeza Hendricks has been blooded as a batsman of some nerve - enough to score a century on debut - and one of these days Andile Phehlukwayo is going to riff so far and wide on the theme of medium pace that he is going to invent a new style of bowling.
Quinton de Kock, installed as captain for the last two ODIs, is suddenly a vocal, demonstrative presence on the field. In a word, woke.
All good. Except that SA are winning up a storm in Sri Lanka, and before the tournament they will have further opportunities to win in Australia and at home against Pakistan and the Lankans, besides Zimbabwe.
Thing is, the World Cup will be played in England - where conditions are unlike any of the above.
The Lankans, Du Plessis agreed, had wised up to that early."In the first [ODI] the pitch did turn but we played the spinners aggressively and then I think they realised that they were perhaps a bit short-sighted - if you prepare spinning pitches and you're still losing on them, you might as well prepare flat wickets and see how you can best prepare for a World Cup.
TALES OF SPIN
"You have to have that vision: short series are still important but you have to have an eye on trying to make sure that you prepare your team in the best way possible for the World Cup," he said.
Even if, Du Plessis didn't have to say, in the process you give your opponents conditions more relevant to that challenge than they might have expected.
But that doesn't hold true in terms of the types of bowlers who will lead the charge at the World Cup.
"If you take the two spinners that bowled in the test matches [mostly Rangana Herath and Dilruwan Perera, but also Akila Dananjaya], they bowled the whole day," Du Plessis said.
"In one-day cricket they bowl three, four or five overs and then they bring someone else on, and the part-time spinners aren't as good."
Going into today's last ODI Sri Lanka's leading wicket-taker was Dananjaya, who also had the lowest economy rate among the home side's bowlers who had played all four games. But his ilk are unlikely to be as successful at the World Cup.THE CAPTAIN'S SMILE
In the 2017 Champions Trophy in England 12 of the top 15 wicket-takers were seamers, who also owned 11 of the leading economy rates.
Still, SA are in a good ODI space. The smile on their captain's face, bum shoulder and all, said so as loud as you like...