Bell and Prior set up series victory but greater tests await

Kevin Pietersen's march up the Yellow Brick Road towards Oz continues unchecked. South Africa, well beaten at Headingley and humiliated at Trent Bridge, were rarely in the third match at The Oval yesterday as England wrapped up the five-match series by 126 runs.

Winning the toss and putting England in, the visitors saw an incendiary start of 101 inside 16 overs from Ian Bell, who went on to score 73, and Matt Prior, with 33, act as the firm foundations of a competitive total of 296. Andrew Flintoff continued his return to form with an unbeaten run-a-ball 78. That he managed the second half of his innings with a thumping headache after being hit on the temple by Morne Morkel would merely reinforce his sense of capturing the glorious past - he cannot have felt like that since the morning after his Trafalgar Square heroics.

South Africa's reply was flatter than a motorway hedgehog as England bowled with the urgency and discipline lacking in their opponents and fielded with the sharpness of a sucked lemon. The tourists were behind the clock virtually from the start and lost wickets regularly, never gaining the momentum to put together the partnerships they needed. By halfway all purpose had disappeared and with it interest. Inside 43 overs they were all out for 170, following on from the 83 at Trent Bridge. Like WC Fields and Philadelphia, they would rather be somewhere else.

It is of course easy when things are going well but Pietersen must take credit for enthusing his team and for the boldness of selection which has seen the return of Steve Harmison, to bowl the middle overs in harness with Flintoff, and the introduction of Samit Patel, who made 31 and took five for 41. On pitches largely conducive to their strengths, the four-man pace attack has operated with vigour and a welcome simplicity - rigid line, repetitive length. Perhaps on flatter pitches that might allow batsmen to premeditate but here it enables the captain to set fields accordingly.

Pietersen also appears to have the happy knack of a proactive captain, acting not so much by instinct as straightforward cricketing nous and reading of the game. He has been helped over the past few weeks by a South African team who, having achieved their primary objective of winning the Test series, have deflated like last week's party balloons and have been unable to raise their game. It would be unfair to say that they are going through the motions but the trip has taken its toll. They need to get home now and regroup before the challenge of Australia away and home before next spring.

In the circumstances, quite how much should be made of England's apparent transformation is not entirely clear. In the first place, as might be expected, they have always been a more successful side at home, where they win significantly more matches than they lose, than away, where the reverse is true. The team assembled by Pietersen are efficient in their familiar conditions. The real test, or at least the next step in the learning curve towards the next World Cup on the subcontinent, will be how the same players cope with this coming winter's matches on the slow, grabby pitches in India.

In all probability the XI who played at The Oval would not constitute the optimum for more alien conditions. In India, pace and bounce at the start and in the middle will count for little, where the new-ball damage will be done by swing and latterly either by reverse swing or by spin and bowlers who have the capacity to take the pace off the ball. So the important thing for the future of England's one-day prospects is that they develop a squad of players capable of forming a team for all conditions with no detriment to the overall standard of play. Into this mix then can come the likes of Dimitri Mascarenhas and Graeme Swann, with Ravi Bopara a ready replacement for both Paul Collingwood and Luke Wright on a like-for-like basis should anything happen to either.

One conundrum that seems to have been solved for the time being at least is the opening partnership. Thus far Bell and Prior have put on 77 at Headingley, were unbeaten in making 85 to win the game in Nottingham and now have topped that at The Oval. If both players rode the wave of good fortune at times and profited from a mercurial bowling display, it is disappointing that, having done the early dirty work, neither was able to bat through the bulk of the innings. Bell in particular played with real flair, reaching 50 from 36 balls, all but four of his runs in boundaries. Thereafter he became tied down and was eventually lbw to the off-spin of Johan Botha. He is getting there, though.