England hand KP his first win

Openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook scored half-centuries as England reached their target of 197 to win the fourth and final Test against South Africa at The Oval.

The home side reached their target for the loss of four wickets, Andrew Flintoff hitting the winning runs with a six mid-way through the afternoon session to hand Kevin Pietersen victory in his first match as Test captain.

Strauss and Cook survived a tough first half-hour before they began to take advantage of attacking fields and some poor bowling from Morne Morkel and Andre Nel.

Strauss was fortunate to survive early on when he turned a full-length delivery off Morkel off his legs straight to Ashwell Prince at leg gully, who had only been placed there after the previous ball by captain Graeme Smith.

It appeared his run of low scores was set to continue but instead umpire Aleem Dar called a no-ball for over-stepping and Strauss survived.

Strauss continued to struggle but Cook began to flourish and punished anything which was short, hitting 10 boundaries en route to his fourth half-century of the series to provide England with impetus after they scored only 10 runs in the first 10 overs of the day.

However, Cook fell soon after lunch, edging Makhaya Ntini to Smith at slip for 58, with Ian Bell following six overs later having had his leg stump ripped out by the same bowler.

When Strauss (67) was caught at backwards short-leg off the bowling of spinner Paul Harris two balls later, South Africa saw a flicker of hope.

Paul Collingwood teamed up with Pietersen to lead England to within spitting distance of the finishing line, although the skipper went via an inside edge to hand Harris a second wicket with just 15 needed.

Pietersen will be delighted to salvage some pride against the country of his birth after South Africa won the series when they went 2-0 up in the third Test at Edgbaston.

That win prompted the tearful resignation of Michael Vaughan and Pietersen has since looked confident in charge, scoring a century in the first innings.