Jimmy Anderson and Ryan Sidebottom took two wickets apiece as England managed to polish off South Africa's first innings here today without any significant help from Andrew Flintoff.

The man who put the spark back into Michael Vaughan's team was robbed of a fifth victim when Paul Collingwood's nightmare match continued with a dropped slip catch.

But Flintoff's ace partners did their bit for the cause as South Africa, having resumed on 256 for six, were dismissed for 314, giving them an important but not insurmountable lead of 83 runs at the halfway stage of the npower Third Test.

Anderson sent back Morne Morkel and Mark Boucher while Sidebottom accounted for Ashwell Prince and Andre Nel.

It was not only Collingwood who slipped up, though. Monty Panesar, surely now unrivalled as international cricket's worst fielder, dropping a sitter in the deep just before South Africa's innings ended.

And, despite their fightback from a position where the visitors had been in complete control at 226 for four, England still had a mountain to climb in order to level the series.

Thanks almost entirely to Flintoff's efforts yesterday evening there was a completely different atmosphere inside the ground this morning. For the best part of two days the crowd, what there was of it, had been as flat as England's performance. But Vaughan's men were roared on to the field and most seats were occupied by the time the country's returning hero ran up to bowl his first ball.

Flintoff pointed out last night that the second-day fightback would count for little if South Africa were allowed to rebuild. And even his most optimistic fans knew 'Super Fred' could not do it all by himself, so Sidebottom's second-over success looked as though it might be really significant.

While Flintoff was recovering from his ankle injury, Sidebottom turned himself into England's player of the year with a string of fine performances. But the left-armer has been fighting a back problem for much of this summer and, having missed the Headingley defeat, he continues to look under par.

Bearing that in mind, perhaps Prince thought Sidebottom was the man to attack. In any event, having batted so solidly yesterday when caught in the eye of the Flintoff storm, the left-hander let himself down by driving loosely at a modest away-swinger to edge to keeper Tim Ambrose.

South Africa had added only eight runs to their overnight total when Prince departed. And if Collingwood's wretched match had improved just a bit, instead of getting even worse, then England really would have been on a roll.

Two balls after the day's first wicket, Boucher edged Flintoff to the right of second slip, where Collingwood put one hand on to the sort of thigh-high chance he would expect to take more often than not. But when life is determined to kick you in the teeth ...

The crowd were not happy, groaning as Edgbaston's giant TV screen replayed the missed opportunity. And when the second new ball failed to bring instant reward, fears of a significantly large South African lead began to grow.

Morkel twice flashed Flintoff for fours backward of point, then off-drove another boundary before Vaughan turned to Anderson. But even then it needed a marginal umpiring decision to break an important little partnership.

Morkel was undeniably beaten by a delivery that would have hit timber had it not struck pad. Whether or not the ball landed on, or outside, the line of leg stump looked debatable.

Still, umpire Aleem Dar, the official who got Flintoff going last night by turning down his lbw shout against Jacques Kallis, was happy enough. So were England when Sidebottom's inswinger easily defeating Nel's airy drive.

There was still another excruciating moment to come, though, before the innings was wrapped up.

Boucher, throwing the bat after being joined by No11 Makhaya Ntini, pulled Sidebottom straight to long-leg, where Panesar, whose fielding seems to get worse the harder he works at it, dropped an absolute sitter. Sidebottom, whose fuse is never very long, could not even bring himself to register disgust. Thankfully for Panesar, and Collingwood for that matter, that incident cost only three runs. Next over, Boucher launched himself into a cover drive which Vaughan - hardly the world's best fielder himself - judged superbly in the deep to take on the dive.

Whatever happens in this match, no one who saw Flintoff's performance yesterday evening will forget it. In an over reminiscent of the one delivered to Australian captain Ricky Ponting here three years ago, he did everything but dismiss Kallis.

The fighting-fit fast bowler tried to york South Africa's most experienced batsman. Then he bounced him before another yorker was only kept out by Kallis's boot - and all this at approaching 90 mph.

The crowd booed umpire Dar for his not-out decision but Flintoff uprooted Kallis's off stump next over to tell the world he was back in business.