Kevin Pietersen was in bullish mood after launching his Ashes tour with a confident 58 against Western Australia and feels “on fire” after his short stint in South Africa ahead of travelling to Australia.

Pietersen’s form was the biggest boost to come out of the second day at the WACA but the rest of England’s top order struggled as they visitors slipped to 8 for 159 before Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann clubbed a face-saving partnership.

Pietersen hasn’t scored an international hundred since March 2009, against West Indies in Trinidad, and even though England have been successful during his lean run many feel he has to perform for them to retain the Ashes.

Pietersen, given a life in the slips on 25, drove strongly through the off side and used his feet to loft Michael Beer, the left-arm spinner, down the ground before miscuing a drive to gully off Michael Hogan and he said his confidence is now coming flooding back.

“I have never really been a technical player, you’ve seen me play for six years,” he said. “I play like a clown, it is my mental approach that I needed to change. I needed to get a load of confidence back and I’m on fire at the moment, so I am very happy.”

“I really enjoyed today, it is always nice to get time out in the middle,” Pietersen added. “I have been working really hard over the last six weeks to get to a place where I am at at the moment. As I said, coming back from South Africa a couple of weeks I feel top draw again.”

This was his first innings for England since making a first-ball duck in the final Test against Pakistan, at Lord’s, in August. He was omitted for the Twenty20 and one-day series which and signed a loan deal with Surrey before organising his own trip to the Natal Dolphins in a quest to regain his form by linking up with one of his mentors, Graham Ford.

“It was amazing, I have worked with him since I was six or seven years old and he is a great family friend,” he said. “Fordy just knows me. He knows how to sort me out.”

Pietersen insisted that he hasn’t taken any notice of Australia’s problems in recent days as they slumped to a series defeat against Sri Lanka amid talk of disquiet in the team.

“I haven’t watched a single ball,” he said. “My computer is turned on to Skype, and I speak to my wife and my baby as much as I can. I haven’t even turned my television on in Australia; I haven’t read a headline, nothing. Somebody told me this morning that they lost, but that’s got nothing to do with us.”

The Aussie fans seem to have lost all faith in their national cricket team as a nationwide online survey has thrown up verdict that Australia would not win the Ashes this time around.

While a lot of fans still hoped that Australia would regain the Ashes, but 56 per cent believe the Poms will defeat the them on home soil for the first time since 1986-87.

In a poll conducted by the Sunday Herald Sun online, more than 6000 fans took part, with questions ranging from the make-up of the team for the first Test at the Gabba, starting on November 25, to whether there is too much cricket being played.

The people blamed the selectors for Aussie team sliding to No 5 position in the world Test rankings. The poll also showed that they believe that coach Tim Nielsen is a failure and should be replaced by Shane Warne. Besides, an overwhelming 74 per cent said that Michael Clarke should not become the next Test captain.

And while Michael Hussey remained a line-ball selection but Marcus North, who only last week was projected as a future captain, did not get fans’ support.

In fact, people’s verdict said that he did not even deserve to be in the team, with 69 per cent of them saying that he should be dropped.

Meanwhile, 85 per cent voted against Nathan Hauritz as the spin bowling answer for Australia and instead chose young gun Steve Smith as the preferred option.

In other shocking responses, the fans preferred Cameron White to take over Test captaincy from Ricky Ponting.

Also, they voted England’s under-fire batsman Kevin Pietersen as Australia’s biggest danger, just ahead of spinner Graeme Swann.

The other poll results showed that it was time for the selectors to show some faith in youngsters, with more than 82 per cent claiming Australia must promote youth in this summer’s Test series against England.

Most of the fans voted that the chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch must be dumped for former Australian captain Greg Chappell.

Meanwhile, Test cricket was still the preferred form of the game, with 68 per cent voting in its favour. Twenty20 came in third behind the 50-over game.

However, the biggest shock of the survey came as the cricket lovers have all but given up hope on Australia winning back the Ashes this summer.

“What a disastrous build-up to the Ashes this is turning out to be,” Terry of Shellharbour posted.

While Greg Johnston, of Sydney, said: “Where’s our mongrel? We were famous for it, now we couldn’t knock a maggot off a chop!”

Even the Test captain-in-waiting Clarke took a belting from the fans again.

“Clarke is clueless as captain,” Gazza of Newcastle wrote.

Australia’s losing streak has reached seven with the SCG defeat by Sri Lanka on yesterday night. But the fans preferred to hold selectors responsible for the debacle, rather than the players, with 90 per cent claiming the selectors are not doing a good job. While 68 per cent delivered the same scathing verdict on coach Nielsen.

Fans instead want former spin king Warne as the coaching replacement.

Interestingly, the the public was divided on whether players’ wives and girlfriends should be allowed on tour, with more than 53 per cent were in favour of them joining the team over summer.

True test for England lies in their ability to defend the Ashes title in Australia, which is altogether a trickier business and a rare feat achieved only on four occasions by the Poms since the controversial Bodyline series of 1932-33, feels former English cricketers.

Beating Australia in England was the easy bit but most of the England’s cricketers will discover in 15 months’ time that winning the Ashes over there is not a child’s play. Players from the successful tours – 1954-55, 1970-71 and 1986-87 – have advised Strauss on what it will take to convert this summer’s success into victory Down Under and those involved in the 5-0 drubbing Down Under in 2006-07 should need little reminding.

“To win in Australia you need a good captain and a balanced attack,” said 85-year-old Trevor Bailey.

“In 1954-55 we had a very good captain in Len Hutton. And then, for the first Test, we picked four pace bowlers – Brian Statham, Frank Tyson, Alec Bedser and myself. Spinners Bob Appleyard and Johnny Wardle played in the other four Tests and it made such a difference. We won three of them. Tyson was absolutely outstanding but we won the series because we had a first-class captain and a varied attack,” Bailey was quoted as saying by ‘The Guardian’.

Michael Vaughan had said this week that victory in Australia would now be “the ultimate achievement” for Andrew Strauss’s resurgent team. Only four England captains since Douglas Jardine have won the Ashes on Australian soil.

“England can win there next year,” said Bailey. “But we need to develop a class slow bowler and I don’t see too many in county cricket. There are a few leg-spinners coming through but to do well in Australia a leg-spinner has to be very good.”

Ray Illingworth, the captain in 1970-71, said: “England will have to be 20 per cent better away than they were at home to beat Australia. That’s to make up for the different conditions, ball and crowds.

“The most important thing for England – and this won’t happen so I don’t know why I’m saying it – is to go into the first Test prepared. In 1970-71 we had four tough state games. And the state sides were full of Test players in them days. Barry Richards and Doug Walters both scored double hundreds against us.

“I still felt we were a little short of match practice before the first Test in Brisbane, which is why I played the extra batter there. Generally, though, I went in with five bowlers in that series, which is what you need to have – a properly balanced attack,” Illingworth said.

Illingworth also added that it’s very difficult for one spinner to do the job when it’s turning and even when it’s not turning, spinners can give you control.

“Adil Rashid is coming on really well. Otherwise England may struggle to get two spinners in the side, though Kevin Pietersen would be good if he was willing to put in the hours.”

Emburey, who was a good spinner, thinks the batsmen hold the key. “I think getting runs up front is the most important thing. Illy’s side had [Geoffrey] Boycott, [John] Edrich and [Brian] Luckhurst all getting runs. On Gatt’s tour we had Chris Broad leading from the front, with three centuries. That made it easier for [David] Gower, Gatting and even Jack Richards to pile on the runs down the order. When your top order is firing you’re controlling the game.”

England have 15 months before they set out to retain the urn. The winter tour against the new No1 side in the world, South Africa, will ensure players do not rest on their laurels and keep players focused on the long road to next winter.

For John Hampshire, winning in Australia is about self-belief. Hampshire, a batsman on the 1970-71 tour, said: “You need a strong captain, which we certainly had in Illy. You need your best players. But beyond that it is about filling your heads with strong positive thoughts. Illy made us feel we were going to win. And if you don’t feel that there’s no point in going.”

The one-team domination in Test cricket has ended with Australia’s decline, feels veteran Indian batsman Rahul Dravid, who foresees the number one spot changing hands every few months between India, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

“I don’t think you’ll see one team dominating like Australia did, at least not in the immediate future,” Dravid said.

“There are three or four teams that are evenly matched and you could see the number one spot change hands a few times in the next couple of years,” the 36-year-old, who makes a comeback to the Indian One-day side after two years, added.

Asked whether India would also face the transitional crisis that the Australians are battling once the likes of Sachin Tendulkar retire, Dravid said it would boil down to how well the Indian pace bowling attack shapes up.

“We’ve got a great blend of experienced cricketers, and promising talent coming through. We’ve done really well over the past couple of years and if we can keep a core group of fast bowlers fit enough to support the spinners then we have as good a chance as anyone,” he told ‘The Guardian’.

“When Australia dominated, it was the bowling of (Glenn) McGrath and (Shane) Warne that was the key and I believe that England won Ashes series because they had the more balanced bowling attack. We certainly have that balance, and so do Sri Lanka and South Africa. I think the bowling strength will determine which team gets to top,” he added.

On his assessment of the Ashes that England won 2-1, Dravid said the series never looked one-sided and could have gone either way.

“I always expected it to be close, and it was. But England won the moments that mattered, and over the course of the five Tests, I’d say that they just about edged it,” he said.

South Africa is taking their new tag of world No.1 in Test cricket very seriously. They have vowed to create an Australian-style dynasty and prevent them from recapturing the mantle of top Test nation.

Australia slumped to No. 4 after its Ashes loss. It had been rated the world’s best team since Mark Taylor’s side defeated the West Indies in 1995.

“We would love to create that sort of aura and the sort of results that Australia had for so long,” South African coach Mickey Arthur was quoted as saying by Herald Sun.

“The results we have achieved in the past 18 months vindicate us being the No. 1 side in world cricket.”

South Africa scripted its maiden Test series win in Australia last summer, but surprisingly lost the return series at home.

Arthur said that was his team’s “one big blemish” and his outfit was superior to the Australian team.

Arthur was astonished by Australia’s 2-1 Ashes loss.

“Had Australia played as well against England as they did against us, I firmly believe they would have won the Ashes,” Arthur said.

“It was a huge thing that guys like Mitchell Johnson and Phil Hughes didn’t play well against England. We found when we played Australia last summer that they lost the big moments and we won them. If you look at the Ashes, the same thing happened when England applied pressure,” he said.

Australia losing the Ashes and slumping to number four in Test rankings is good for world cricket as it gives other teams the confidence to shine in the future, Pakistan great Wasim Akram said Tuesday.

England beat Australia by 197 runs in the fifth and final Test at The Oval on Sunday to regain the Ashes 2-1 — a defeat which knocked Australia from the top position for the first time since the rankings were introduced in 2003.

“Thank God, the Australians are now losing and have lost their dominance on world cricket,” Wasim said. “I wish I was playing in this period because when I played they were nearly unbeatable.”

Australia, which also lost a home series against South Africa and an away series in India last year, are now placed fourth with South Africa perched atop the Test rankings. Sri Lanka are number two and India three.

Pakistan are ranked sixth in the world.

Wasim, one of the best left-arm paceman to play the game, agreed Australia’s aura as near-invincible was over.

“I agree with what England captain (Andrew) Strauss said that Australia have lost their aura, they don’t have replacements for (Glenn) McGrath and (Shane) Warne and that’s making the difference.

“This Australian team is still exciting but they are no more world beaters with two great bowlers in Warne and McGrath, and (Adam) Gilchrist and (Matthew) Hayden all retired.”

Wasim confessed he never thought England would win the Oval Test.

“It is unexpected for me that England won the last Test,” said Wasim, who took 414 Test and 502 One-day wickets in an illustrious 19-year career.

“England played bold cricket, did bold selections and were not scared of losing.

Wasim said retiring England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff would be missed in Test cricket.

“Of course, Flintoff will be missed. He will be remembered as an exciting and aggressive player,” said Wasim of his former Lancashire county colleague who retired from Test cricket after the Ashes.

“We need a series like this to keep Test cricket healthy,” added Wasim, who has been linked to Indian Premier League team Kolkata Knight Riders as their new coach. Wasim, however, refused to comment on the reports in Indian media.

As with cornered animals, so it goes with sports teams. Box them tightly into a corner and one of two things can happen: fight or flight. 

But who, honestly, expected England to fight like this? In one devastating afternoon Friday of bowling on a wicket crumbling like over-baked oatmeal flapjack, captain Andrew Strauss’ squad, written off one minute, darlings of the nation the next, reshaped the course of the Ashes. The outcome of a six-week series of five matches seemingly decided in just two hours.

England haven’t quite, at least not yet, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat that many had predicted for them. But they put themselves in a position to do so, in what will rank as one of the more remarkable wins in the Ashes’ 127-year history.

Those who fear that Test cricket’s days are numbered, that the limited-overs version of the game is destined to steal away fans’ hearts and advertisers’ money, should rejoice at this absorbing encounter.

Only five-day games provide so many twists, subplots and depth of drama, although, given how Australia is succumbing at The Oval, this match will be over well before the umpires call time.

To pin Australia’s slump on its captain, Ricky Ponting, would be unfair. This was a collective failure. But Ponting made a crucial error in deciding not to play his leading spin bowler Nathan Hauritz on The Oval’s unusually dry and dusty pockmarked wicket. Ponting must have looked on enviously Friday as off-spinner Graeme Swann exploited the turn and uneven bounce so effectively for England, taking 4 for 38.

It’s easy to say that sporting heroes are born from the type of desperate situation that England faced going into this test. A must-win game, for a team weakened by injury and doubt after a crushing defeat in the penultimate Test at Headingley tied the series on one-match apiece and handed Australia the momentum.

But to be a hero, someone has to step up. Someone has to seize the moment, shrug off the pressure and put in the big performance.

Often, no one does and hopes are dashed. Sometimes, more rarely, they do. On Friday, that man was Stuart Broad. More importantly than simply taking wickets, he gave England hope. He triggered the Australian batting collapse, with the first four wickets in a 21-ball burst at a cost of just eight runs.

He finished with five for 37. Broad also took six for 91 in England’s disaster at Headingley, but his performance at The Oval was better and far more important.

As the wickets tumbled, a renewed belief in England flowed into the ground. The partisan crowd, until then so studiously subdued, roared. Broad, who is strikingly handsome with his blond hair and blue eyes, doffed his blue cap to acknowledge the applause.

He sent Ponting back to the dressing room for just 8 runs. There, the Australian captain furiously chewed the nails of both hands as Australia slumped to 160 all out.

“It was hard to stop the momentum,” said opener Simon Katich, Australia’s high scorer on 50 and one of just four who reached double-figures.

Based on this performance, England may have found its replacement for Andrew Flintoff.

Like Flintoff, 23-year-old Broad clearly has a sense for the big occasion. He has proved in this series that he can add useful runs, too. He is ambitiously eyeing the No.7 spot in the England batting order that Flintoff will relinquish when he retires from Test cricket after this series.

England can give thanks to the teenage growth spurt that transformed Broad into the 6-foot, 6-inch giant he is now. While his bowling lacks the venom that Flintoff unleashes at his best, Broad’s height gives him fearsome penetration with the ball.

“I grew nearly a foot in a year,” Broad told the Guardian newspaper. “That must have been fate because it changed me from a batsman to a bowler and then within a year I was playing international cricket.”

Australian expectations had been so high before this match that Ponting had joked about his team needing an open-top train to celebrate in. Ponting will now surely be asking that it has blacked-out windows, instead.

Star all-rounder Andrew Flintoff says he will not reconsider his retirement decision despite Australia putting England on the backfoot on day-one of the deciding Ashes Test at the Oval.

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.

Star New Zealand stumper Brendon McCullum does not think Twenty20 format’s overwhelming success has sounded Test cricket‘s death and believes the longer version would always remain the pinnacle of the game.

A batsman, whose hard-hitting game is tailor-made for the Twenty20 format, McCullum said he wanted to become a premier Test batsman and does not think the traditional format of the game cricket is on its deathbed.

“Test cricket to me is still so special. I cannot see that it’ll ever die,” the Kiwi vice-captain said.

“It may take a different course, but I don’t think it’ll die. There’s too much history, there’s too much support, there are too many purists out there for it to die,” McCullum was quoted as saying in an ICC release.

Making a comparison of both the formats, McCullum said, “Twenty20 is a vehicle to get more people to the game so that cricket has more followers. If we can do that and then we can even have a small percentage of them into Test followers, I think we would be doing our job.

“I cannot imagine Test cricket dying. Of course guys have their priorities and maybe the youngsters would like to play Twenty20 a little more but Test cricket would still survive because it’s the pinnacle of the game.”

Dwelling on keeping, McCullum, who represents Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League, said Australian stumper-batsman Adam Gilchrist has changed the game for the glovesmen.

“Adam Gilchrist changed the face of what a wicketkeeper’s role in the team was. He was phenomenal and he did it against all trends and he changed ideas of how a wicketkeeper should be involved in the team,” McCullum said.

Australia moved closer towards retaining the Ashes after reducing England to 307 for eight on the first day of the fifth and final Test at the Oval on Thursday.

Several England batsmen, including captain Andrew Strauss, made starts but could not go on to get the big score the team needed in a match they had to win to regain the Ashes but Australia needed only to draw to retain them, with the series level at 1-1.

Ian Bell battled hard for 72 but was unable to claim a maiden Ashes hundred in his 13th Test against Australia.

Warwickshire colleague Jonathan Trott, making his Test debut, looked good in compiling 41 before he was spectacularly run out by Simon Katich while Strauss fell for 55.

Sadly for home fans, Andrew Flintoff – in his last Test before an injury-induced retirement – barely got going before he was caught behind off left-arm quick Mitchell Johnson for seven.

Peter Siddle, who took a trio of top-order wickets, ended play for the day when he had Graeme Swann caught behind, the fast bowler finish with figures of four for 63 in 18.3 overs.

Bell fell to his first ball after tea when he played on to Siddle with a large gap between bat and pad.

His innings spanned 137 balls with 10 fours in nearly four hours but his exit left England wobbling at 181 for four after Strauss, England’s only century-maker this series with 161 in their second Test win at Lord’s, had chosen to bat first on a typically good Oval pitch.

It was a marked improvement after Bell had managed just 11 runs before twice falling to Johnson in England’s innings and 80 run fourth Test defeat at Headingley which saw Australia level the series at 1-1.

But, not for the first time in his 49-Test career, the 27-year-old left England thinking of what might have been.

Wicketkeeper Matt Prior briefly upped the tempo while Trott cover-drove Stuart Clark for four.

But Johnson ended a stand worth 48 when he deceived Prior into playing too early, the ball looping to Shane Watson at point.

Flintoff walked out to a standing ovation.

England’s top scorer in the drawn third Test at Edgbaston had been controversially left out at Headingley because the selectors feared his right knee problem would prevent him getting through the match.

But further batting heroics would have to wait until the second innings after a flat-footed, edged cut was caught by wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

South Africa born Trott looked assured but, having walked forward and started to look for a single off part-time spinner Marcus North, not even a dive could see him beat short leg Katich’s direct hit on the stumps.

It was a brilliantly quick piece of work and saw the end of Trott’s 81-ball innings featuring five fours.

England, who’d lost their last three wickets for 39 runs, were now 267 for eight and again in danger of being bowled out for an uncompetitive first innings score.

They had advanced from 108 for one to 180 for three at tea, losing both Strauss and Paul Collingwood (24) in the second session.

Strauss exited when the left-handed opener limply hung his bat outside off-stump against Ben Hilfenhaus and edged to Haddin.

It was a tame end to an innings that saw Strauss complete an 89-ball fifty featuring 10 fours.

His stand of 102 with Bell had taken England from 12 for one, following the early loss of Alastair Cook, to 114 for two

Strauss’s departure saw the experienced Collingwood come in at number four, one higher than his usual position. But he never settled and sliced Siddle to Michael Hussey in the gully.