A magnificent innings of 158 from Kevin Pietersen ensured that England won back The Ashes for the first time in 18 years when the 5th Test match ended in a draw amid jubilant scenes at The Oval.

England were finally bowled out for 335 at 1745, leaving Australia no time at all to get the 342 runs they required to level the series. Because of slightly farcical ICC rules, Australia were obliged to begin batting and had made 4-0 in four balls when bad light ended play.

In the end the brutal facts of the scoreline suggest that England coasted to the draw they needed to secure the Ashes, but the rude statistics conceal the incredible drama on the last day of the series.

When the day began at 1030 England's position was perilous indeed. There were 98 overs in the day and they needed to bat for at least two sessions to make the game safe. Four wickets in the morning session, shared between Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, meant the game was hanging in the balance at lunch, but then came the heroics of Pietersen.

The Hampshire player's quite spectacular innings included an Ashes record of seven sixes struck with brutal power. To even consider batting like that in such a nerve-wracking situation requires a player of genius, or a madman. Pietersen has proved he is the former, ending his first Ashes series as the only player with an average over 50.

But, as so often in this riveting series, things might have been very different. Pietersen was dropped on 15 off McGrath by his old mucker Warne, at a time when England's innings was trembling and another wicket could have precipitated the collapse Australia were probing for. Ironically, that fateful error, which arguably cost Australia the urn came from a man who took an Australian record of 40 wickets in the series.

But Australia will not blame Warne and, strong man that he is, he will not blame himself. He will shrug it off as one of cricket's innumerable twists of fate and enjoy the joyous feeling of taking six wickets on his final day of Test cricket in England. For the second Test in the series Warne took 12 wickets in the match, and carried the Australian attack on his shoulders, as Flintoff has done for England at times.

He began bowling at 1058 and did not finish his first spell until 1648, during which time he tormented all the England batsmen with big turn out of the footholds, apart from Pietersen, who played him with immense composure. Their little battle has been a fascinating sub-text and Warne has had his triumphs too, not least in the first innings of this match, when Pietersen played all round a big spinner. But this was Pietersen's day once Warne had given him the luck he required.

Pietersen carted the great legspinner over cow corner into the crowd, swept him off the meat of the bat over square leg and drove him straight over the long-on boundary. But Pietersen is not a one-dimensional player and, in between the strikes, there were periods when he defended watchfully.

Even more devastating was Pietersen's onslaught on the two younger pace bowlers and twice he had to call for new bats. Brett Lee made the schoolboy error of striking him a nasty blow in the midriff in the last over before lunch and paid for it in the afternoon session as Pietersen went after him.

In the space of three overs, he was hooked into the stands, driven straight for four then brutally smashed with Pietersen's unique top-spin drive down the ground. And remarkably, this was during the fastest spell of bowling from either side in the series as Lee touched average speeds of 94. The faster he bowled it, the faster it went to the boundary. One 96.7mph bouncer, the quickest ball of the series, was leg-glanced fine for four, before Pietersen hooked Lee off his eyebrows for another four. In three overs Lee had gone for 37 runs and was taken out of the attack.

Shaun Tait fared no better. Having been barracked by the crowds all day in the field he came into the attack and was immediately leathered for boundaries through cover and square on the off. Pietersen had turned his game inside-out having hit everything to leg; he now hit everything to the off and drove Tait off the back foot for four to reach his hundred five minutes before lunch.

On the way he needed support and it came from Paul Collingwood (10), who lasted long enough to hold up Australia for 75 minutes and share in a fifty partnership out of which he made a gritty three runs, and Ashley Giles (59), who batted with supreme maturity and a cool head to reach his highest Test score when England most needed him. It was the ultimate team performance from the ultimate team man.

12 Sep, 2005