Andrew Flintoff Disregards His Hobble to Put the Wind Up Australia

The Eric Hollies stand may be one of the noisiest places in cricket, but they also seem to know the game. "Super Fred" they chanted when Andrew Flintoff came to the crease.

They were admirably undeterred by the fact that their man had not taken a wicket when Australia batted on the first two days. He had dropped a sitter at slip, too.

And he came to the wicket with such a hobble that if he had been a horse they would probably have pulled a green screen across him and reached for a gun to put him out of his misery. He might have been Fred, but he was anything but super. He moved stiffly at the crease and was almost comically lame when required to run between the wickets. He was also unusually circumspect when he batted.

Perhaps the crowd recalled Flintoff's performances here four years ago in the greatest Test of the greatest series. Then, he went after the bowling in a way we did not see in any of the other Tests, even at Trent Bridge, where he scored his hundred.

At Edgbaston he had clubbed 68 from 62 balls, with six fours and five sixes, and followed that up with an 86-ball 73 in his second dig, with six fours and four sixes.

Perhaps the chanting crowd brought memories to his mind because he suddenly punched Ben Hilfenhaus through the covers for four and he looked like a man casting aside his incognito.

He drove Peter Siddle between point and cover for another four and when Shane Watson came on he twice drove him straight to the boundary.

In the stiff and muscle-bound Watson, Flintoff might have seen a mirror image of himself. Ricky Ponting, Australia's captain, was trying to fiddle a few overs before the new ball became available but Watson bowled at only medium pace and his three overs cost 23 runs.

But by now Flintoff was so rampant that all the bowlers seemed alike to him. He clouted Nathan Hauritz over midwicket for six to bring the scores level and then hit him to square leg for four to give England the lead. His fifty came off 53 balls and there were seven fours to go with that six.

The end was such an anti-climax. He had reached 74 when, just before tea, he left a delivery from the off-spinner Hauritz. But to his horror it spun back sharply and caught his glove, with Michael Clarke taking the simple catch at slip.

Suddenly, the Eric Hollies Stand might have been a church, so quiet was it. But they still gave Flintoff a great ovation.