A spectacular century from Andrew Flintoff drove England into a semi-final showdown with Australia at Edgbaston on Tuesday that will prove a fascinating taster for next year's Test and one-day encounters between cricket's oldest international adversaries.

Flintoff's 104 from 91 balls was his third hundred in his last six ODIs, not to mention a matchwinning 99, and this was arguably the best innings of all, coming in the quickest time, off 89 balls with the second fifty in 21, and under all the pressures of a quarter-final.

It boosted England's total from its overnight 118-3 after 32 overs, which was around par, to 251-7 after 50 overs, which was almost impregnable at the Rose Bowl, where sides rarely make 200 batting second.

Sri Lanka's reply stuttered along to 95-5 from 24 overs, as Flintoff took centre stage again with two wickets after Steve Harmison had fired out two batsmen with the new ball, before rain came at 1335 to wash out the rest of the day's play.

Because Sri Lanka had faced more than 20 overs, their innings constituted a full match, and they lost to England by 49 runs on the impenetrable Duckworth-Lewis scale.

Flintoff has now pummelled the bowling attacks of West Indies, New Zealand, India and Sri Lanka in a phenomenal summer's batting that suggests he will be remembered one day as an all-time great, though, ironically, this was his first ODI century of the year in a winning cause.

His one failure in his past six ODIs came last week against the weakest side he has played against, Zimbabwe, when he reverted to the old slogging Flintoff who flexes his muscles and loses control of his shots.

That blip was a salutary warning and Flintoff heeded it by following his now familiar pattern of playing himself in, running lots of singles and hitting the odd boundary, then launching an all-out assault in the final few overs.

England had begun the day with Marcus Trescothick on 64 and Flintoff on 21, and 18 overs to bat, but Trescothick was soon run out in the second over when Upul Chandana, spun round to throw the stumps down with him short of his ground at the non-striker's end.

The run out proved a minor setback as Paul Collingwood again provided the ideal foil for Flintoff in a partnership of 94, intelligently conceding the strike by skilfully working the ball around, but positive and clear-headed enough to punish the bad balls.

His Thorpe-like improvisations included one magnificent shot backward of square for four off Chaminda Vaas and he was somewhat unlucky to fall for 39 off 49 balls, caught on the boundary rope off Vaas with 2.1 overs to bowl.

But England in one-day cricket most resemble Argentina's football side with the genius of Diego Maradona in the ranks. If Argentina's best tactic was for every player to pass the ball to Maradona, for England it is to give the strike to Flintoff.

It took him four overs to hit a boundary and his fifty came up off 69 balls, but as so often this summer he could afford to bat sensibly with so much power held in reserve.

In the past six overs Flintoff struck three sixes, all effortlessly clean blows without a hint of a slog, first off Chandana, then twice straight off Nuwan Zoysa in the penultimate over of the innings.

But he reserved his purest batsmanship for Sri Lanka's best bowler, Chaminda Vaas, piercing two fielders only yards apart on the boundary edge with a perfectly timed cover drive, then driving another boundary backward of point in controlled, classical style.

England's score was boosted to unimagined heights as 100 came from the last 10 overs, 71 of them from the bat of one man, and Sri Lanka would have needed to make the highest score this year at the Rose Bowl to win batting second.

However, for all Flintoff's brilliance Sri Lanka will rue dropping him when he had scored only a single on the first day, then again on 25, when Upul Chandana could not cling onto the ball at deep square leg.

Flintoff's brilliant batting must not distract from the importance of his bowling and, significantly, when he made centuries against West Indies and New Zealand in losing causes, he was unable to bowl because of injury and England were forced to cobble together overs of part-time seam.

With Flintoff back in the bowling ranks, they proved more than a match for India and now Sri Lanka, the world's second-ranked ODI side.

His introduction into the attack as third seamer in the 13th over proved decisive as he took the wicket of Sanath Jayasuriya with his fourth ball for a threatening 27, then grabbed another key wicket when Saman Jayantha fell for a fluent 23, edging to the keeper.

Flintoff's two wickets built on the sharp work of Steve Harmison with the new ball, his short-pitched deliveries proving too hostile for Avishka Gunawardene and Marvan Atapattu.

Another important member of England's improving attack, Ashley Giles, grabbed the fifth wicket in his first over, that of Mahela Jayawardene, to reduce Sri Lanka to 95-5 before rain came.

Could England have won this match without Flintoff? Probably not. Can they beat Australia? With Flintoff in the ranks, anything is possible, and Australia must find a way of stopping him.

England: MP Vaughan (capt), VS Solanki, ME Trescothick, AJ Strauss, A Flintoff, PD Collingwood, GO Jones, AF Giles, AG Wharf, D Gough, SJ Harmison.

Sri Lanka: MS Atapattu (capt), DA Gunawardene, ST Jayasuriya, WS Jayantha, KC Sangakkara, DPMD Jayawardene, TM Dilshan, UDU Chandana, WPUJC Vaas, MF Maharoof, DNT Zoysa.

17 Sep, 2004