Freddie can't find a miracle: Prince fires another ton as England suffer again

But when he left the field at the end a fruitless second day in England's second npower Test against South Africa Headingley, he looked as though he might have been happy to trade some of the above for a slice of fortune.

His captain, Michael Vaughan, warned not to expect miracles on Fred's return after a fourth operation on his chronically weak left ankle, 18 months and countless forecasts that he would never make it back at all, but even his sternest critics took that with a pinch of salt.

Tough return: Andrew Flintoff

And when he had the South African skipper, Graeme Smith, caught in the slips on Friday and then saw Hashim Amla, another of their Lord's century- makers, spooning the ball towards Vaughan at mid-off, it appeared the captain's assessment might have been either hopeless pessimism or brilliant kidology.

From the moment TV replays allowed enough doubt for Amla to win a reprieve from the umpires, Flintoff discovered that sometimes even miracle-workers need luck.

And after Ashwell Prince's second century in successive Saturdays, this time to set up a possible win rather than to try to help save the draw, in a stand of 171 for the fifth wicket with AB de Villiers out of 314 for four, the man known as England's X-factor must have been asking himself 'Why?'

Flintoff, resuming on his overnight one for 24 from 10 overs, started from the Rugby Stand End and bowled with such fire and precision that South Africa's batsmen, on 101 for three, appeared happy to settle for survival. The controversially selected

Darren Pattinson enjoyed his first Test wicket, fortuitously trapping Amla lbw with a slow leg-side full-toss replays suggested would have missed the stumps, and then the pivotal moment in Fred's and England's day arrived just before tea, when he was handed the second new ball. In his first over with it, his 10th of the day, Flintoff managed to slant a ball across Prince, which the batsman attempted to cut and the occupants of the Western Terrace cleared their throats to join the appeal for caught behind.

Breakthrough: England's Darren Pattinson celebrates dismissing South Africa's Hashim Amla for 38 runs

Flintoff was halfway up when he realised the ball had missed the outside edge by a feather and halfway down to his knees when, two balls later, Prince drove him through midoff for four, before collecting the single off James Anderson to complete a wonderful hundred. And in the last over before tea, and from the very last ball, Flintoff sent one into Prince's pads in front of middle and leg stumps just below the knee roll.

Flintoff put everything into the appeal but umpire Billy Bowden refused to see it his way leaving Fred sitting on his backside . . . and Vaughan scratching his head.

He wasn't alone. Several further spells from Pattinson, the 29-year-old roof-tiler born in Grimsby but brought up in Australia, had failed to answer the day's burning question.

If Geoff Miller and his selection panel had 'seen something' in the Nottinghamshire bowler in his 10 previous first-class matches, what on earth was it? Pattinson ran in purposefully and put the ball in the 'right areas' but he did so at a pace between 77 and 80 mph and without any discernible movement.

Big hit: Ashwell Prince

Miller was surprised Pattinson's selection, ahead of Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones, Steve Harmison, Chris Tremlett, and young hopefuls like Graham Onions, Saj Mahmood and Liam Plunkett, was questioned.

Last night many were expressing surprise at his surprise, especially after hearing Pattinson's radio interview in which he was asked whether he had always had ambitions to pay for the country of his birth and he replied, in best Australian: 'No, mate.'

Monty Panesar again found it hard to extract life out of an unresponsive pitch, while Anderson looked as though his efforts over the last three days there had taken their toll.

Stuart Broad looked what he is, a young man learning his game and, when Vaughan looked around to see where the next wicket might come from, all he saw were shadows of the Fab Four.