Flintoff helps England to Lord’s win over Australia

Andrew Flintoff showed England this morning what they will be missing after he retires from international Test cricket at the end of the Ashes series, when he ripped through the Australian tail to propel England to victory in the 2nd Test with figures for the innings of five wickets for 92 runs. Australia were all out for 406 - 115 runs short of the total set by England.

Flintoff, who was a doubt for this match with the knee injury that is one of many to plague his lower body and force him to vacate the five-day stage, bowled for 10 overs in a row, during which he picked up three wickets for 43 runs.

Most importantly, Flintoff - who to no one's surprise was the man of the match - broke the sixth-wicket partnership of Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin that had threatened to take the game away from England. Flintoff enticed Haddin into edging a catch to Paul Collingwood at second slip, ending the 185-run stand.

He continued to terrorise the Australian lower order, sending in pin-point accurate yorkers and vicious bouncers. He smashed Nathan Hauritz's stumps when the injured spinner had scored just one, before winkling out the nuggety Peter Siddle to claim five wickets in an innings for the first time in four years.

Appropriately enough, the last time that Flintoff achieved this mark, also against the Australians, was in the final Test of the 2005 Ashes series that saw England win for the first time in 16 years. Fans will be hoping that this performance will signal the return of the Ashes urn after just two years. The next Test is at Edgbaston in Birmingham on July 30. ·