Harmison claimed three wickets, including two in consecutive balls, in the climax of England’s 197-run victory over Australia, which was defeated 2-1 in the series to surrender the Ashes.

Flintoff has been England’s most hostile and fastest bowler in recent years and the only other bowler in English cricket who has managed to consistently emulate similar speeds in excess of 90 miles per hour is Harmison, whose career has faltered in the last 18 months having been dropped twice because of patchy form.

With Flintoff now retired from Test cricket because of a knee injury and instead focusing on limited overs matches only, there is now more of an opportunity for the Durham player Harmison to move ahead in his Test career.

Ian Botham is the highest English Test wicket-taker with 373 victims, while Flintoff and Harmison are joint tenth in the England tally with 226.

“If I was Steve Harmison and could bowl like that I would keep going,” Flintoff told reporters Monday at the team’s London hotel, after being asked about Harmison’s future. “If you ask any batsman in the world ‘who do you not want to face?’ it would be Steve Harmison.”

“He could end up being one of the greats for England. He could go on to be our leading wicket-taker of all time. If he wants to, there is still a lot more to come. Whatever decision he makes will be the right one.

“But as his friend I would like nothing more to be at Lord’s next year drinking champagne and watching him take more wickets for England.”

Harmison played in the fourth and fifth Tests having been overlooked for the first three matches of the Ashes series.

England - The Ashes 2009

England regained the Ashes with a 197-run win over Australia in the fifth and final Test at the Oval on Sunday. 

Victory, achieved with more than a day to spare, saw England take the five-match series 2-1.

Australia, set what would have been a record fourth innings victory total of 546, were bowled out for 348 with Michael Hussey last man out for 121, when he was caught close in by Alastair Cook off spinner Graeme Swann.

“It’s a special moment. It hasn’t sunk in yet. We had to dig in and fight,” said England skipper Andrew Strauss.

“When we were bad in the series, we were very bad but when we were good we were very good.”

Australia captain Ricky Ponting said: “We gave it all we could, but it wasn’t enough. Full credit to England, they won the crucial moments and deserved to win the series.

“I think this series has shown that Test cricket is alive and well around the world.”

From 327 for five, the end came swiftly with four wickets going down for 16 runs in 32 balls, with fast bowler Stephen Harmison taking three for seven in 13 himself.

It was a remarkable turnaround for England, who’d lost the fourth Test by an innings and 80 runs at Headingley, and had only clung on for a draw in the series opener at Cardiff by a single wicket.

Australia had been making steady progress at 217 for two before Ponting was run out by Andrew Flintoff’s direct hit in the all-rounder’s last match before his Test retirement.

Five balls later Michael Clarke was also run out for nought, before England’s progress was checked by a sixth-wicket stand of 91 between Hussey and Brad Haddin.

But just when England fans were starting to fret again, Haddin, on 34, went down the pitch to Swann, who took four for 120 in 40.2 overs, and hoisted a mistimed drive to Strauss at mid-wicket.

And 327 for six became 327 for seven when Australia lost another two wickets in quick succession.

Mitchell Johnson went for a seven-ball nought, brilliantly caught by diving second slip Paul Collingwood off his Durham team-mate Harmison.

Peter Siddle then got a leading edge off Harmison and Flintoff held a simple catch at mid-off.

Harmison made it two wickets in two balls when Stuart Clark was snapped up at short leg by Cook.

Ben Hilfenhaus survived the hat-trick but the end was nigh.

England had taken the new ball after tea with Australia 278 for five.

But Hussey’s two off Stuart Broad saw him to a first Test century in 29 innings off 219 balls with 11 boundaries.

Flintoff and Strauss had stunned Australia with two run-outs, the first they’d suffered this series, before tea to dismiss Ponting and Clarke.

Ponting and Hussey had frustrated England with a third-wicket stand of 127 that raised hopes of an improbable victory.

But Flintoff struck in unlikely fashion.

Hussey called Ponting for a single off Harmison but Flintoff, running round from mid-on, threw down the stumps at the striker’s end and Ponting was short of his ground by a foot.

Ponting, in what could be his final Ashes Test in England, had to go for 66, having stroked 10 stylish fours in his 103-ball stay after he and left-hander Hussey had revived Australia from the depths of 90 for two.

Vice-captain Clarke fell in even more extraordinary fashion.

Australia’s leading batsman this series, clipped a ball from Swann that deflected off the boot of Alastair Cook at short leg to leg-slip Strauss, who hit the stumps with a sharp under-arm throw.

This was a much tighter call for third umpire Peter Hartley but he eventually ruled the bail was in the air with Clarke’s bat still to be grounded.

Clarke was out for nought and Australia, who’d lost two wickets for three runs in six balls, were now 220 for four.

And they could have been five down had not Collingwood dropped Hussey, on 55, off Swann.

But Australia were 236 for five when Marcus North, trying to sweep Swann, was smartly stumped by wicket-keeper Matt Prior.

Australia resumed Sunday on 80 without loss.

Left-hander Simon Katich had only added one to his overnight 42 when, padding up, he was plumb lbw to Swann.

Three balls later, fellow opener Shane Watson (40) was lbw to man-of-the-match Stuart Broad.

England consolidated Saturday the advantage gained from dismissing Australia for just 160, with Broad taking five for 37, in a second innings 373 for nine declared that featured a debut century from Jonathan Trott, who made 119.

Strauss’s declaration left the visitors needing to break the record for a successful Test fourth innings run-chase, of 418 for seven set by West Indies against Australia in Antigua in 2002/03, to win this match.

England victory’s left Ponting with the unwanted record of becoming only the second Australia captain, since Billy Murdoch in 1890, to be in charge of two losing Ashes tours of England.

And it also knocked Australia off top spot in the Test rankings.

Flintoff, who will retire from Tests after the Ashes owing to recurring injuries, may not get the chance to bid adieu to the longer version of the game on a high with a win as England were reduced to 307 for 8 on the first day of the fifth and final match.

“That’s what you do when you retire — you say I am not playing again,” Flintoff said adding that “I cannot see myself giving up Test cricket and then going into four-day cricket,” he said about his role for Lancashire.

“If I felt I needed a game before a one-day series or if Lancashire were struggling with injuries, I would play here and there,” he was quoted as saying by ‘The Times’.

Flintoff, who plays for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League, will be concentrating on the One-dayers and Twenty20.

This week’s fifth and final Ashes Test, which starts at the Oval on Thursday will Flintoff, has said, be the last of the injury-prone all-rounder’s career.

But Australia captain Ponting, whose side need only a draw in south London to retain the Ashes with the series all square at 1-1, is not thinking about departing the Test scene just yet.

At the age of 34, this could be Ponting’s final Test tour of England and a series win would go some way to making up for the disappointment of Australia’s 2-1 Ashes reverse on English soil in 2005.

But for Ponting the thrill of leading an Australia side without such star names as the retired quintet of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer still remains fresh.

“I’ve never put a time-frame on when I am thinking about finishing my international career,” Ponting, Australia’s all-time leading run scorer and a veteran of 135 Tests, said at the Oval on Wednesday.

“I’ve really enjoyed the last 12 to 18 months working with a fresher bunch of guys,” the Tasmanian added.

“It’s been one of the big challenges of my career and we’ve had some good successes along the way,” explained Ponting, who led Australia to a series win in South Africa this year.

“I hope that continues this week and I hope I don’t have to worry about it (retirement) for a while.”

England famously celebrated their Ashes triumph four years ago with an open-topped bus parade through the streets of London.

But whatever the outcome of the fifth Test, Australia will be boarding a train the day after the scheduled finish for a One-Day International against Scotland in Edinburgh.

“Is it an open-topped train?” joked Ponting. “It’s an incredibly busy international schedule but if we win, I’m sure we’ll celebrate accordingly.”

Ponting has become something of a pantomime villain figure for many England fans at grounds during this series and the booing got so bad that spectators were asked, in the Headingley programme, by England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), chairman Giles Clarke to stop jeering him.

“If I get a clap, I’ll be happy,” said Ponting.

“Last week at Canterbury (in Australia’s final warm-up match) was terrific. I got clapped on the ground and I got clapped off, but that might have been because I only made 45 I got clapped off.

“I’ve enjoyed every moment of this series. It’s been great Test match cricket and it’s been great to be part of an Ashes series like this. I think it just goes to show that Test cricket is alive and well, and we are all really enjoying these bigger series we are playing in.

“Regardless of what happens this week, I will have enjoyed the series to tell the truth.”

Flintoff bowled England to victory in the second Test at Lord’s but missed the fourth Test loss at Headingley in Leeds when the selectors decided his injured right knee would not stand up to the stress of a five-day match.

At a news conference on Tuesday Flintoff, who will retire from Test cricket after the Ashes series following a daunting sequence of serious injuries, said he not bowled since the drawn third Test but had concentrated on rehabilitation on the knee which required an operation this year.

He practised on Tuesday with a brace on his heavily strapped right knee and went through his paces in the nets without showing any obvious discomfort.

“I have been trying to get ready for this one which is going to be an unbelievably good game,” he said. “I am confident that I will be all right but as I say I have to prove it.

“I am sure there will be an element of swelling, however that can be managed. Using various treatments I can get the swelling down.

“For the past week I have been getting fit for this Test match. It will be the biggest I have ever played, not because it’s been my last but because of the position of the series.”

Flintoff, 31, who was the key England player in the epic 2005 Ashes series with both bat and ball, said he did not think the heavy defeat in the fourth Test would have any bearing on the course of the Oval Test.

“It’s quite exciting in the dressing room,” he said. “People want to get going on Thursday and play.

“Momentum is a word everyone seems to use but it keeps swinging according to who you speak to. I think this Test match is more of a one-off.

“It’s how the teams react to the pressure on such a big occasion. I think the team that does that best will take the honours at the end of it.

“I think if we win it’s going to be a far greater achievement than in 2005 — 2005 was fantastic but the side had performed well over a period of time. We had beaten everybody in the world.

“This side has gone through a lot over the last 12 months, the side has changed a hell of a lot. We have got young players who have never played in the Ashes.”

An England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) statement issued on Monday said swelling on his right knee injury had “significantly eased”.

Flintoff was ruled out of the fourth Test at Headingley, where England were thrashed inside three days by an innings and 80 runs, because of his longstanding knee injury.

England, with the series all square at 1-1, must win at the Oval – where the fifth Test starts on August 20 – to regain the Ashes, while Australia need only a draw to retain them.

But if their talismanic all-rounder is in the side, home fans will dream of a fairytale finale for both Flintoff and England.

An ECB statement said: “Andrew Flintoff’s right knee injury was reviewed today (Monday) by his specialist in conjunction with the ECB and Lancashire CCC medical teams.

“The advice received was the swelling in his knee has significantly eased following the decision by the England management team to rest him from the last Test match and that, subject to further rest and intensive treatment, he will be available for selection for the fifth npower Ashes Test at the Brit Oval.”

England took the controversial decision to leave out the 31-year-old all-rounder, the bowling star of their 115-run second Test win at Lord’s and top-scorer in the drawn third Test at Edgbaston, from their fourth Test side because of concerns his knee injury would prevent him seeing out the game.

In pace bowler and hard-hitting batsman Flintoff’s absence, England were humiliated at Headingley. To make matters worse, fast bowler James Anderson sustained a hamstring injury.

But the ECB said Flintoff’s Lancashire colleague was also set to be available at the Oval.

“James Anderson also underwent a scan on his hamstring, which was clear,” their statement said.

“As there is no evidence of a significant tear, it is anticipated that he will also be available for selection for next week’s final Test.”

Flintoff, the star of England’s 2005 Ashes series win, has had an injury-blighted career and he said before the match at Lord’s that this would be his final Test series.

Andrew Chandler, Flintoff’s agent, was adamant his client could have played at Headingley, telling Monday’s edition of The Times: “He told them he was fit enough to get through… They didn’t want him.

“What they didn’t take into account during Thursday’s practice was that there was no adrenalin. He was hurting at Lord’s but the adrenalin got him through. It would have got him through this week as well.”

There were only three days between the end of the Edgbaston Test and Friday’s start at Headingley and England captain Andrew Strauss told reporters after stumps on Sunday: “Hopefully we’re in a better situation to get a result earlier for the final Test.”

Flintoff’s absence always causes a headache for England as they must then decide whether to play an extra bowler or an additional batsman.

At Headingley, they brought in another quick in Stephen Harmison only to be dismissed for 102 in their first innings on Friday after Strauss won the toss and elected to bat.

“When you haven’t got an all-rounder in that number six or seven spot it is always a problem and one we are going to have to face up to because Flintoff is retiring from Test cricket,” England coach Andy Flower, speaking after the end of the Headingley Test and before Monday’s announcement, said.

“That is a problem because we seem to be either light on the batting side or the bowling side.

“We will have to make a decision for the Oval – if he is not fit – where we put our strength.”

Flintoff, despite missing out at Headingley, remains second in England’s series batting averages, behind Strauss, with 171 runs from five innings in three matches at an average of 42.75 and a best, made at Edgbaston, of 74.

But he has taken just seven wickets in the series at an expensive average of nearly 49, with most of those coming in his match-winning burst at Lord’s of five for 92.

Anderson is England’s joint leading wicket-taker in the series, alongside Stuart Broad, with 12 wickets at 38.91 and a best of five for 80 at Edgbaston.

But, hampered by his injury, Anderson’s 18 wicketless overs at Headingley cost 89 runs.

Australia quicks Ben Hilfenhaus (18), Peter Siddle (16) and Mitchell Johnson (16) have all taken more wickets in the series so far than Anderson and Broad.

England picked 14 players in its squad Tuesday, one more than for the drawn third Test, with pace bowler Steve Harmison or left-arm seamer Ryan Sidebottom seemingly set to replace Flintoff at Headingley if he succumbs to his troublesome ankle injury.

Flintoff was arguably the key player in the second Test win that put England 1-0 up but failed to take a wicket in the last match and labored through 11 overs on Monday’s final day.

With England hoping to regain the Ashes with victory in Leeds, national selector Geoff Miller said Flintoff’s chances of playing were good.

“I would say they’re always pretty good,” Miller said. “We know how determined he is to finish off his career. I’m sure he’ll want to play.

“We know full well that if he’s capable of doing the workload that the captain requires, he’ll be in the team.”

Harmison has been on standby to fill in for Flintoff for the past two matches but is struggling with blisters on his foot. Sidebottom is effectively in the squad to cover for his fellow bowler.

Team director Andy Flower, however, is hopeful that Flintoff, who is retiring from Test cricket after the fifth and final Test, will be fit.

“We will have to play it by ear again,” Flower said. “We’ve done that throughout the series. Continued wear and tear mean he probably is less likely (than for the last Test) but he’s a strong bloke. He’s got a strong body and a strong mind.”

England also dropped spinner Monty Panesar after he was left out of the last two Tests and added Warwickshire batsman Jonathan Trott and Sidebottom.

“It’s disappointing for Monty, but the records show over the years it’s not a spinning track,” Miller said.

The South African-born Trott, who averages 92.33 in 10 first-class county matches this season, is not in the squad as a replacement for the struggling Ravi Bopara but as an extra batsman.

“Ravi will bat at No.3 for us at Headingley, definitely,” Flower said. “Trott will be there if we want a sixth batter.”

While Australia could be bolstered by the return from injury of pace bowler Brett Lee and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, Miller said the bigger than usual squad will give Flower and captain Andrew Strauss greater flexibility when they come to name the team after assessing the state of the pitch.

“We’ve got the option for an extra batter if necessary,” Miller said. “Jon’s been part of the performance squad for a year or more now. He’s done really well over the last year or so with the bat.

“The options are there for the captain and coach for what they want to go with on the morning of the game.”

Squad: Andrew Strauss (Captain), Alastair Cook, Ravi Bopara, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Matt Prior, Andrew Flintoff, Stuart Broad, Steve Harmison, James Anderson, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Graham Onions, Jonathan Trott.

England, at tea on Sunday’s fourth day, were 316 for seven in reply to Australia’s 263, a lead of 53.

All-rounder Flintoff, the bowling hero of England’s 115-run second Test win at Lord’s and the star of the 2005 Ashes, fell shortly before tea in what he has said will be his final series in the five-day format.

Trying to withdraw the bat against off-spinner Nathan Hauritz and play no shot, he gloved to first slip Michael Clarke having shared rapid stands of 89 and 52 with Matthew Prior and Stuart Broad respectively.

Broad was 20 not out and Graeme Swann four not out at the interval.

With only a session and a day left in a match where the whole of Saturday’s play was washed out, Ashes holders Australia’s chances of levelling the five-match series ahead of next week’s fourth Test at Headingley were fading.

They did though put England on the backfoot earlier Sunday and the hosts were 168 for five, still 93 behind, when Flintoff joined Prior.

But by the time the sixth-wicket duo were separated they’d added 89 in 97 balls to take England to within sight of a first innings lead.

Flintoff, who made two fifties in the corresponding Ashes Test here four years ago, then pressed on and continued to play commendably straight.

England were 159 for four at lunch with Ian Bell, recalled in place of the injured Kevin Pietersen, 46 not out in front of his Warwickshire home crowd.

Bell completed a 96-ball fifty when he clipped improving left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson off his pads.

But having survived several close calls, Bell’s luck ran out on 53 when Johnson swung a ball back into his pads to have him lbw with veteran umpire Rudi Koertzen at last ruling in the bowler’s favour.

Johnson, who had struggled for line and length during the first two Tests, had taken one wicket for 12 runs in five overs.

Prior, who made a brisk fifty at Lord’s, revived the innings.

Flintoff followed up by cover-driving Ben Hilfenhaus, who before lunch had dismissed England captain Andrew Strauss and Paul Collingwood, to the boundary.

Australia captain Ricky Ponting, with England 201 for five, brought all-rounder Shane Watson into the attack for the first time this match after an impressive spell of two for 38 in 14 overs from Hilfenhaus.

Watson, recalled after opener Phillip Hughes was dropped, had top-scored with 62 in Australia’s first innings.

However, the medium-pacer was driven for three fours in seven balls by rival all-rounder Flintoff.

Prior succumbed to fast bowler Peter Siddle when, on 41, he miscued a pull to substitute fielder Hughes at mid-on, with England six runs shy of Australia’s total. The wicket-keeper faced 59 balls with six fours.

Flintoff then levelled the scores in style with a straight six off Hauritz before sweeping the bowler for his seventh four to take England into the lead and bring up his own fifty in just 53 balls.

Broad, a left-hand bat, kept the runs coming from both ends with several stylish boundaries as England went from 200 to 300 in just 90 balls.

England resumed on 116 for two.

Strauss, who made a century at Lord’s, had added just five runs to his overnight 64 when, he was caught behind off Hilfenhaus by Test debutant wicket-keeper Graham Manou.

And, on the stroke of lunch, Hilfenhaus had Collingwood well caught at second slip by Ponting.

Flintoff has been troubled by a knee problem that threatens his participation in the remaining three matches of the series, which resumes in Birmingham on Thursday.

But Strauss is encouraged by the all-rounder’s fitness and is confident he will continue to spearhead England’s attack.

“All the indications are that Andrew will be fine. We need to see how he goes over the next couple of days during practice,” Strauss said Monday. “But at this stage we are very confident and obviously he will want to build on his performance at Lord’s.

“I spoke to him the day after the second Test at a charity dinner and he said then he was recovering well. That’s encouraging. He won’t have bowled until practice tomorrow but has been in constant contact with our medical team.”

England lead the series 1-0 and Strauss confirmed that Ian Bell will bat at four as a direct replacement for the injured Kevin Pietersen, who will sit out the rest of the series following Achilles surgery.

“Ian Bell will come in for Pietersen at four. We’re very clear on that,” Strauss said. “It causes the least possible disruption to other members of the side. We’re all very excited for Ian. He was left out of the team and had to work very hard to get his place back.

Meanwhile, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced Brit Insurance will become the principle team sponsor of England cricket in a partnership that begins in January 2010.

The contract will last four years with Brit Insurance replacing Vodafone, sponsors since 1997.

Ponting believes his team had Pietersen’s measure during the first two Tests of the ongoing Ashes series but wonders how England will cope without their batting star now he has been ruled out of the series following Achilles tendon surgery.

“If you look at the way we’ve bowled to him and the way he’s played, he’s been one of the England batsmen we’ve been able to put the most pressure on,” Ponting was quoted as saying in Daily Telegraph. “Ben Hilfenhaus, in particular, has bowled beautifully to him.”

“But he is a massive loss. He’s such an X-factor in their side, the way he can score quickly and the ability he has to put the bowlers on the backfoot by putting extra pressure on them.

“I think Pietersen does leave a pretty big hole in their batting. For us, it will be a real positive. It probably puts a bit more pressure back on Flintoff to perform. He has to stand up big time now,” he said.

Ponting also wonders how the inconsistent Ian Bell will feel trying to fill Pietersen’s enormous shoes.

“Now England have a much more sound, technically correct, but scratchy player like Bell, if we happen to get him in at the right time he’s a pretty nervous sort of bloke as well,” Ponting said.