At the end, Andrew Flintoff [Images] bent down and put a consoling arm around the shoulders of Brett Lee [Images], a man who moments before he had been trying to pummel in submission.

It will remain the defining image of the second Ashes Test which ended at Edgbaston on Sunday.

England's [Images] players were celebrating in a tight knot after snatching victory by two runs to keep the series alive against Australia. The crowd, who seconds earlier had been petrified into silence, was roaring with relief.

Flintoff, though, was able to imagine what Lee, having made 43 runs and taken almost as many bruises on hand and body in getting Australia so close, felt like.

Flintoff is a bit different.

For almost 20 years, English all-rounders have been taunted by the 'B word'. Now it will be the 'F word'. For Botham, read Flintoff.

The 27-year-old, in truth, has been that rarest of jewels for 18 months -- a genuine all rounder capable of selection for either his batting or bowling.

The Ashes, though, were the real test. He had missed the last two series through injury, then, after rushing back from ankle surgery, he felt he had played timidly at Lord's.

At Edgbaston he hit back with two blazing half-centuries, hit nine sixes in the game, took seven wickets and pocketed two catches.

He thought he had dislocated his shoulder during his second innings but batted on. His 51-run partnership with number 11 Simon Jones, according to Australia captain Ricky Ponting [Images], settled the game.

His bowling was equally influential. Straddling Australia's two innings, he charged in and took four wickets in nine balls without conceding a run off the bat.

As he did so, a lone bugler in the crowd blasted out the tune from "The Flintstones".

Freddie's first over on Saturday, accounting for Justin Langer and Ponting, was by his own admission the best he had ever bowled.

Make a link with Botham's 1981 heroics at Headingley, however, and Flintoff backs off.

"As for comparison with people, I don't see it like that. I'm just playing cricket with my mates in the dressing room. I don't put any pressure on myself comparing or trying to be someone I am not.

"I am Andrew Flintoff -- and this is the way I play."

For a long while, it seemed like the wrong way.

An ox of a man, he struggled early on. His bowling was crude, his batting cruder still. He bashed off the front foot and played in fifth gear, whatever the demands. Then he re-fuelled with junk food and beer, ignoring increasingly worrying back problems.

But that was then. Today, happily married, happily settled, he is England's talisman, two players in one.

He came of age against South Africa two years ago. With defeat a certainty in the second Test at Lord's, he opted for a little fun and hit 142 off 146 balls.

Far more significant, however, was his 95 in the fifth Test. He opted for a little thinking, marshalled the tail and put on 99 for the ninth wicket with Steve Harmison, who contributed six. England won and levelled the series.

FLINTOFF'S FIGURES

People used to talk of Jacques Kallis [Images] as the best all rounder in the world but the South African has become a batsman who bowls a bit.

Flintoff's figures bear no argument -- since the start of 2004, he has averaged 45.15 with the bat, 24.37 with the ball (to Botham's career statistics of 33.54 and 28.40).

Before the Ashes, Ponting suggested Flintoff might, just might, get into his team. Tongue firmly embedded in cheek on Sunday, he added: "Flintoff has done okay. He's not a bad player at all."

Michael Vaughan [Images], meanwhile, said: "I haven't seen a better all-round performance from Freddie.

"To beat Australia you need a really good team performance but we also had individual brilliance. The only surprise was that he didn't take the last wicket or catch."

The biggest danger to Flintoff's form and fitness is himself. He will bowl whenever asked, then bowl again. On Sunday, the stock bowler became the strike bowler, flirting with 90mph as he brutalised Lee and Michael Kasprowicz.

Flintoff says it's the way he plays, "I can't change." He is just a straightforward, big-hearted man, a man with mates.

Shane Warne [Images] calls him "one of the good guys in international cricket" but former Australia captain Steve Waugh might have suggested more mind games, more "mental disintegration", to unsettle the giant Lancastrian.

It probably wouldn't work.

"I'm not clever enough to understand psychology," Flintoff says with a huge grin.

You might as well try and disintegrate an ox.