Pietersen produces the goods

Cricket: England won back the Ashes yesterday, just as they said they would and few believed them.Needing only a draw to secure the series and regain the theoretical custody of the tiny urn they conceded to Allan Border's Australians 16 years ago, they overcame early jitters against the might of Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne and all but batted out the final day, thanks to Kevin Pietersen's astounding maiden Test century which brought him the man-of-the-match award.

Michael Vaughan and his side can now look back on a series in which they came back from the devastation of losing the opening match to take the spoils by two matches to one. Let the celebrations begin.

Last night the giant arch on the new Wembley stadium was lit up for the first time, and today the team will emulate the rugby World Cup-winning side by undertaking an open-top bus journey through the heart of London to Trafalgar Square.

There will be awards and honours galore. Andrew Flintoff, voted man of the series ahead of Warne, may even be given a dukedom and a country estate in Cheshire, and no one could begrudge him. It has been a phenomenal summer.

Play Pietersen, they said before this series began. Tolerate his lip and his ego, the bling, bullshit and 50-grand ear stud. And forgive him his batting peccadilloes - of which there would be many from such a free spirit with a confidence level on red alert - because somewhere along the line he will deliver an innings that matters.

Yesterday was his, the day this brash fellow, with the skunk-chic haircut and more front than Durban, channelled it all into one remarkable innings that saved the day for his team and won them back the Ashes just when it seemed that the warriors McGrath and Warne might be pulling them back into Australia's last-gasp grasp.

England wanted backs to the wall yesterday. Survival was of the essence. They got it from Marcus Trescothick (33) and Vaughan (45), and after Ian Bell and Flintoff had gone in quick succession they got it stolidly from Paul Collingwood and stoically from Ashley Giles, who was to make 59, his highest Test score.

From Pietersen over the course of 12 minutes short of five hours, they got something else altogether. He came to the crease with England 67 for three and with McGrath on a hat-trick, survived a brute of a first ball thanks to an excellent decision from umpire Billy Bowden, and by the time McGrath claimed him by squaring him up and removing his off stump, Big Ben, away in the misty distance across the Thames, was striking five o'clock, the second new ball had been taken and at 308 for eight, with only 29 overs of the series remaining, the game was as good as dead.

By the time Warne ended the innings with two wickets in an over, England had reached the sanctuary of 335, a lead of 341, Australia needing to score at precisely 19 runs an over.

Last summer, the West Indian Chris Gayle hit Matthew Hoggard for six fours in an over, but given that only two sides have ever made more in the fourth innings of a Test at The Oval, never to win, and certainly not at a rate that would make Twenty20 look like a blockathon, it looked a tall order.

In the event, one ferocious over from Steve Harmison in indifferent autumnal light persuaded Justin Langer and Matthew Hayden that life at their age was not worth risking in a hopeless pursuit, and with the England team wandering aimlessly from the field with hands thrust into pockets, so perhaps the finest, most tumultuous Test series in history ended in incongruous tameness.

Pietersen's idea of rearguard defiance was to hit 15 fours and seven sixes, the sort of thing that George MacDonald Fraser might have conjured up for Flashman. Geoffrey Boycott would have been apoplectic at the sheer audacity of it.

As outrageous stroke followed outrageous stroke - Brett Lee's thunderbolts hooked off his eyebrows and over the men placed on the boundary specifically for such an eventuality, Warne clumped over midwicket and belted straight - spectators were reduced to peeping nervously through their fingers: "No, KP, no. Well, okay if you keep doing that."

Coming from Pietermaritzburg, perhaps he did not understand the magnitude of what he was trying to do. One wonders too whether he realised the significance of his 158, the first century of what promises to be a long career.

Thirty-seven years ago, on this same ground, another South African, albeit one of vastly different upbringing, made the same score for England against Australia and the world was never to be the same again.

Pietersen's will never carry the impact of Basil D'Oliveira's innings, but it has contributed hugely to the resurrection of the interest in the game in England, preventing, as it did, last-minute Australian party-pooping. From the promising beginnings of three successive half-centuries he has now plundered 473 runs in the series, more than any other batsman, at an average of almost 53.

As will ever be the case, though, Pietersen's innings was not without its frenetic and fraught start. Before he had scored, he edged Warne's leg-break which might have offered a straightforward chance to Hayden at slip had Adam Gilchrist's gauntlet not nudged it on the way.

Then when 15, and driving fiercely at Lee, he edged at high velocity at throat height to Warne at first slip, who parried the ball but could not take the rebound. How cruel can sport be?

The man who virtually single-handedly has dragged his side through this series, who has given every last drop in his body, dropped the catch that may (and it is only may) have cost his team the Ashes. To replay it ad infinitum on the big screen just added insult to injury.

There has been no greater champion this summer than Warne, and yesterday he added a further six wickets to the half-dozen he took in the first innings, match figures of 12 for 246 and 40 wickets in the series a record for a five-match rubber.

As he left the field, he and the great McGrath together, they turned and waved to the crowd who had risen to give their appreciation.

McGrath will not be back, but of Warne one should never say never, he is that astounding.

Guardian Service

ENGLAND: first innings 373 (A Strauss 129, A Flintoff 72; S Warne 6-122); AUSTRALIA: first innings 367 (M Hayden 138, J Langer 105; A Flintoff 5-78, M Hoggard 4-97).

ENGLAND: second innings (34-1 overnight)

M Trescothick lbw b Warne 33

A Strauss c Katich b Warne 1

M Vaughan c Gilchrist b McGrath 45

I Bell c Warne b McGrath 0

K Pietersen b McGrath 158

A Flintoff c & b Warne 8

P Collingwood c Ponting b Warne 10

G Jones b Tait 1

A Giles b Warne 59

M Hoggard not out 4

S Harmison c Hayden b Warne 0

Extras (b-4, w-7, nb-5) 16

Total (all out, 91.3 overs) ... 335

Fall of wickets: 1-2, 2-67, 3-67, 4-109, 5-126, 6-186, 7-199, 8-308, 9-335.

Bowling: McGrath 26-3-85-3 (nb-1); Lee 20-4-88-0 (nb-4, w-1); Warne 38.3-3-124-6 (w-1); Clarke 2-0-6-0; Tait 5-0-28-1 (w-1).

AUSTRALIA: second innings

J Langer not out 0

M Hayden not out 0

Extras (lb-4) 4

Total (for no loss, 0.4 overs) 4

Did not bat: R Ponting (capt), D Martyn, M Clarke, S Katich, A Gilchrist, S Warne, B Lee, G McGrath, S Tait.

Bowling: Harmison 0.4-0-0-0.

Result: match drawn.

England won the series 2-1: First test - Lord's: Australia won by 239 runs; Second test - Edgbaston: England won by two runs; Third test - Old Trafford: Match drawn; Fourth test - Trent Bridge: England won by three wickets; Fifth test - The Oval: Match drawn.