Pietersen inspires England to victory

Pietersen turned in a man-of-the-match display in the day-nighter, hitting an unbeaten 90, claiming two wickets with his off-spin and playing his part in the run out of Jacques Kallis.

Since taking over as captain of all England's senior teams, Pietersen has already inspired a final Test victory at The Oval over the previously dominant South Africans, provoking irritated reaction in Australia by claiming his new side would win the Ashes if they continued that level of performance.

He has also demonstrated his great powers of persuasion to tempt Steve Harmison into reversing his decision to retire from one-day international cricket and answer England's call to end his two-year exile and return for the five-match series.

But perhaps his greatest feat since taking on the responsibility of captain has been to inspire an unlikely victory under the lights at Headingley as England cruised to victory.

Any worries about the captaincy affecting his performance were lifted by a brilliant century at The Oval and underlined even more emphatically with a brilliant 90 off 82 balls to rescue England from a pedestrian start to their innings and reach 275 for four.

His performance with the ball, however, was even more unexpected and he helped remove three of South Africa's key batsmen - Kallis, AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher - with his under-used off-spin just as the tourists looked on course to complete a convincing triumph.

He also demonstrated an uncanny knack of choosing the right time - and the right bowler - to make a change in the attack with himself, Harmison and Samit Patel all claiming wickets in their first overs.

Pietersen's display masked another worrying start to the innings by England, who were only rescued by a brilliant 158-run stand off 129 balls between the new captain and all-rounder Andrew Flintoff that made amends for a desperately slow start.