Flintoff's fire confirms new sense of dedication

Lancashire all-rounder shows value of hard work and confirms new status as world-class talent with 59 from 62 balls

While Simon Jones, in his first Test match, played the most entertaining knock of the day which contained in equal measure, hysteria, irritation and comedy, Andrew Flintoff produced the most meaningful and impressive innings. He again confirmed how far he has come in the last 12 months.

Mike Watkinson, Lancashire's former captain and now their coach, spoke the other day of the complete change in Flintoff's work ethic. He now fully realises that if he is going to succeed consistently, he has to work extremely hard at his game.

His fitness has improved beyond recognition. He is no longer the good time Charlie who ate and drank almost anything that moved and to hell with the consequences. His weight has come down, his muscles are now attuned and he has acquired a remarkable singleness of purpose about his game.

He was one of those who went – and indeed asked to go – to the Academy in Adelaide last winter. He was a willing pupil under Rod Marsh, but he had already come to all the right decisions. He had only been there briefly when he was summoned to India to join England's Test squad, when Craig White announced that his bowling was not quite what it had been.

In India, Flintoff showed beyond doubt that he is a Test-match bowler with the stamina to keep going for long, hostile spells. Later, after Christmas in New Zealand, he turned the spotlight onto his batting. He made a fierce 137 in the first Test in Christchurch and more comparably exciting runs before the series was over, returning to England as an established Test all-rounder.

He still had to prove to a slightly disbelieving English audience that the change was real. In the first part of this summer he has done precisely that.

Now, at Lord's, he gave a splendid exhibition of his compelling strokeplay before sharing the new ball with Matthew Hoggard. He hit the ball murderously hard, scoring 59 in 62 balls with one six and 10 fours. Whenever he was allowed any width outside the off stump, he swayed back and cracked the ball away either side of square to the offside boundary.

He smote the ball down the ground with gusto when it was overpitched, he played fluently off his legs and unwound one beautiful cover drive which was the product of pure timing and not brute force. He has joined the new school of Test-match batsmen led by Australia's Adam Gilchrist. At No 7, Flintoff, like Gilchrist, does not have the duty to bat with the same orthodoxy as the man one place higher in the order. He has, as it were, a licence to amuse.

The only criticism here was that he was unable to go and turn his brilliant innings into a hundred. But even so, he gave the full-house crowd a marvellous idea of what he is poised to become for England. This winter, he might just outplay Gilchrist at his own game – and wouldn't that be fun.