England's players (from left) Andrew Strauss, Ashley Giles, Michael Vaughan, Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Flintoff celebrate after their side beat Australia on the final day of the fifth Test of the Ashes series at The Oval cricket ground in London yesterday. - REUTERS
LONDON (Reuters):
KEVIN PIETERSEN defied his close friend Shane Warne to score an outrageous maiden Test century and seal England's first Ashes triumph for almost two decades yesterday.
Pietersen broke Australian hearts as he brushed off three dropped catches to score 158 and ensure a draw on the last day of he weather-affected fifth and final Test at The Oval.
That gave the home team a 2-1 series win and unleashed jubilant scenes at The Oval, with the 23,000 capacity crowd staying behind to cheer their players around the venue.
Six runs ahead after the first innings and resuming their second on 34 for one, England recovered from a top-order collapse to bat almost the entire day before being dismissed for 335.
The world champions were left to face less than an over from Steve Harmison before accepting an offer of bad light as well as their historic defeat.
The South Africa-born Pietersen was eighth man out, bowled by Glenn McGrath, but by then he had saved the game.
He hit seven sixes and 15 fours, faced 187 balls and batted for four and three-quarter hours, helping to put on 60 for the sixth wicket with Paul Collingwood and 109 for the eighth with Ashley Giles who made 59.
Warne produced a mammoth performance to take six wickets for 124 to go with his six in the first innings, but did not get enough support.
England, who lost the opening Test at Lord's by 229 runs, last won the Ashes in 1986-87. They have now won their last six Test series.
Australia had won a record eight Ashes series in a row before yesterday.
BRINK OF DEFEAT
Michael Vaughan's side seemed to be on the brink of defeat at lunch as the collective genius of Warne and McGrath reduced them to 127 for five.
Pietersen, however, in his first Test series for his adopted country, mixed his unlikely good fortune with extraordinary leg-side shot-making.
"He's got a little bit of genius in him," Vaughan said. "To score 158 on a pressure day, it doesn't get better than that."
For Warne, Pietersen's friend and Hampshire team mate who dropped the easiest chance he offered when on 15, there were few consolations, just new records.
In his last Test in England and one day short of his 36th birthday, the leg spinner completed 40 wickets for the series and 172 in all against his favourite opponents, surpassing the previous Australian record of 167 by Dennis Lillee.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting refused to point fingers.
"The chances were there and we didn't take them," he said, adding of Warne's miss: "That happens. That's part of the game. He's one of the best slippers in the game. It's a little mistake and it's been capitalised on."
