Flintoff Comes in From the Dark With a Roar of Full Recovery

Andrew Flintoff took his 200th Test wicket yesterday but - in case we had forgotten during those 18 months of injury-enforced absence - this is a player capable of upstaging even himself. If the roar he let out after dismissing Neil McKenzie was muffled by the statisticians' complaint that seven of those 200 had come for a World XI, then the primal scream that followed the castling of Jacques Kallis an over after Aleem Dar had rejected an apparently cast-iron shout for lbw was a mix of catharsis, anger and industrial-strength testosterone.

"Emotion was running quite high at that point," he said with dry understatement. "You've been out there all day, running in and then the decision gets turned down. You can chunter as much as you want at the umpire but you've got to get on with it. It was an aimless rant. I went in to see [Aleem] afterwards and apologized. I shook his hand and we're friends again."

The crowd would have appreciated the sentiment. As Edgbaston roared in affirmation of the most thrilling kind of spectator/sportsman symbiosis, it was easy to forget that South Africa may still go on to clinch this series before the weekend is over. But the Flintoff sub-plot has never been one to respect a main storyline and for a few spine-tingling overs the tale of England's mislaid mojo deferred to the epic about the returning hero. Whether or not South Africa win here Flintoff, with four for 68 out of a total of 256 for six, has kept his side of the bargain.

"It was an important hour for us," he said, modestly glossing over the wicket of AB de Villiers shortly after disposing of Kallis. "We needed to get wickets to get into the game. It was nice to take some. I've worked hard to get to this point after everything I've done with my physio, Dave Roberts, over the past six months after my ankle operation. I'm pleased."

The plan to bowl yorkers at Kallis - used successfully by Ryan Sidebottom in the first Test at Lord's - was hatched during a tea-time chat with England's bowling coach, Ottis Gibson, and Michael Vaughan, and Flintoff admitted he was aided by the dark windows in the pavilion that caused both Kallis and Mark Boucher to lose sight of the ball. But that did not detract from the sustained brilliance of his 10-ball mini-spell to South Africa's very own Table Mountain. "When you're coming up against some of the best players in the world, and Kallis is right up there, it brings the best out of you," said Flintoff.

Vaughan must have been hoping his team-mates had fed off Flintoff in the manner advocated by the former coach Duncan Fletcher before this game. But with Jimmy Anderson too wide before lunch, Ryan Sidebottom creaking in the mid-70s before tea and Monty Panesar virtually ignored, it felt too often like a lone battle. Quietly Flintoff may be wondering what he has come back to. Not since 1996 and the visit of Pakistan have England lost by two games or more in a home series to a team other than Australia. Defeat here and Flintoff's last eight Tests, stretching back to Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge in 2006, will all have been lost.

But that is not to blame the man himself, who has fond memories of this ground with bat and ball and was not keen to dwell on his milestone. "It's taken a while, hasn't it?" he said. "It's nice to get 200 but I'd sooner have done it 15 or 20 Tests ago." Last night England were probably willing to forgive him.

10 of Freddie's best

The deliveries that proved Flintoff was back to his best

Ball 1 Yorker misses Kallis's bat and his off stump by a whisker

Ball 2 Vicious bouncer which jags away from Kallis's flailing bat

Ball 3 Kallis ducks under another pacy bouncer

Ball 4 Kallis defends into the off side

Ball 5 Yorker hits Kallis on the toe of left boot, but Aleem Dar says not out to lbw appeal

Ball 6 Kallis flicks leg-stump delivery through midwicket for a single

Ball 7 Bouncer has Kallis almost ricking his neck to avoid being hit

Ball 8 Kallis leaves alone outside off

Ball 9 Kallis throws the bat and misses

Ball 10 Flintoff pegs back off stump with an 88mph ball that swings late and leaves Kallis groping