Pietersen c Strauss b Flintoff 208

The headline may look strange but it could have happened if the Natal born batsmen Kevin Pietersen had not decided to turn his back on his native South Africa in favour of a career with England.

With the fifth test petering out to a draw and Pietersen still at the crease one of Channel Four's commentators will pose a very interesting question. Former Australian test player Michael Slater asks, "How did the South African selectors let this guy slip through their fingers?"

Fellow commentator Mark Nicholas bellows what were all thinking at home.

"Good Question!"

England really struck gold when they brought Pietersen into their side. He has consequently becomes the leading runs scoring in this series and it seems a far cry when it was debated whether he would even play!

It is also arguable that Pietersen has struck gold, gold being the operative word and the possible reaason for his defection to the England team.

Not that I am complaining and it is not a new thing to happen. Allan Lamb and Robin Smith were both successful England batsmen without masking a broad South African accent. Kepler Wessels played for the Aussies before captaining South Africa.

One question that will still need answering is how they managed to let this happen. When Lamb and Smith played for England the country was in the midst of apartheid. Unless I'm mistaken the country has left those days behind.

It suggests a failure in some regards of their cricket board. However, it is not our problem so thank your lucky he wasn't stepping out at Johannesburg in that second innings back in the winter. Otherwise Matthew Hoggard may have had his thunder stolen by a young promising batsmen from the provinces.

Take a breath and enjoy the victory

By Chris O'Keefe

Is it just me or is it actually a relief that it's all over!

I don't think my nerves could take any more of that exciting cricket between England and Australia. There hasn't been a day of this series where either side were not in with a chance of winning at some stage, with the exception of Lord's. Even when Australia were following on at Trent Bridge, there was the thought of Australia sneaking a 180 run lead and putting England under pressure.

As it happened they only set a mere 129 to win. I say that tentitavely because I've seen 12 years of Shane Warne terrorising England with balls spinning every which way and Andrew Strauss managed to fall victim to his best delivery of all time only weeks earlier.

When the dust settles and people look back at the series I think England dominated large parts of the series and were in a commanding position in almost all of the tests after Lord's.

The biggest plus point is that England have discovered that they have match winners all the way through their side. Besides the obvious influence of Andrew Flintoff bowler Simon Jones was unplayable on many occassions during the series. Centuries from Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Flintoff and captain Michael Vaughan were taking the game away from Australia.

Only the form of Ian Bell batting at four could worry the England selectors. However Paul Collingwood may yet solve that problem anyway before the tours of Pakistan and India this winter.

England should enjoy this and then set a bigger goal, beat the Australians down under! If they do that then they will be officially the world's top test team.