Pietersen: Outstanding all-round display

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The NatWest Series
Headingley Carnegie
England 275-4 (K P Pietersen 90 no, A Flintoff 78) v South Africa 255 (J H Kallis 52)
England beat South Africa by 20 runs

Captain Kevin Pietersen led from the front with both bat and ball as England edged ahead in the five-match series against South Africa with a 20-run win at Headingley Carnegie.

The new man in charge hit 90 not out in the hosts' total of 275-4 and then claimed 2-22 in his five overs of off-spin as the Proteas were dismissed for 255.

Steve Harmison marked his ODI return in fine style having been coaxed out of retirement just 24 hours earlier, claiming the key scalp of Graeme Smith on his way to figures of 2-43.

Andrew Flintoff also claimed two wickets after earlier sharing a 158-run stand with his skipper, the Lancastrian making 78 from just 70 balls from his new position in the order of number five.

Crucial stand

It was the efforts of the dynamic duo that lifted the pace of England's innings from a slow walk to a Usain Bolt-like sprint following a laboured start.

The pair had come together with the home side at 113-3 when Owais Shah swept Johan Botha straight out to Vernon Philander at deep backward square leg.

By that time both openers had already gone having shared a stop-start 77-run alliance that could have ended on numerous occasions before Ian Bell was caught at backward point by a leaping AB de Villiers.

Jacques Kallis picked up that first wicket and struck two overs later when Matt Prior perished in almost identical fashion having hit the previous ball for six.

The towering blow by the Sussex wicketkeeper, back in the international fold and given the job of solving something of a problem position at the top of the order, broke a 70-ball spell without a boundary.

Prior finished up with 42 from 52 balls but needed three lives to make his runs, including edging his first ball between first and second slip and then being the beneficiary of a shocking drop by Philander at mid-off.

The fielder did make amends, just about, when he juggled but held on to the chance off Shah. South Africa had to wait until the 50th over for another breakthrough.

Pietersen was content to pick up runs in ones and twos to aid the rebuilding process and didn't hit a boundary until he had faced 52 balls on his way to a fifth score of 50 or more against the country of his birth in just eight one-day innings.

Instead it was Flintoff who added some much-needed impetus, managing the first England boundary not hit by Prior in the 35th over. He finished up making his highest one-day score since an 87 against Australia in 2005.

Partnerships

In contrast to their opponents South Africa never managed a sizeable partnership and the constant loss of wickets proved costly in their run chase.

A rapid opening stand of 50 in under eight overs came to an end when skipper Graeme Smith became Harmison's first one-day wicket in two years, edging behind to wicketkeeper Prior.

The Durham bowler struck in his first over into the attack and Pietersen managed to pull off another masterstroke when the decision to delay the third power play and bring on Samit Patel resulted in the spinner bowling Herschelle Gibbs for 37.

The England captain decided to get the job done himself to end a third-wicket stand of 49, de Villiers tamely chipping to mid-wicket, and when Kallis (52) was run out seven runs later following a mix-up with JP Duminy, England were always in control of the contest.

Pietersen had Mark Boucher stumped courtesy of some smart work by Prior, who then held on to a low edge off Duminy to give Harmison a second scalp.

Stuart Broad got in on the act by getting Botha caught at deep square leg for 26 and it was left to Flintoff to flatten the tail, yorking Andre Nel and Makhaya Ntini in the 50th over to clinch an impressive win for the new-look England.