The 30-year-old Lancashire all-rounder bowled England back into the third Test by claiming two for 15 in a six-over spell during the final session at Edgbaston to leave the tourists on 256 for six, leading by just 25 runs.

"If I'm honest it's taken a while but it's nice to get past 200, but I should have done it 15 or 20 Tests ago," admitted Flintoff, who is playing his 68th Test for England and has also played one for the Rest of the World. "But I want to take a lot more than that for the team and I want to perform better than I have before, and I want to keep improving."

He added: "At this time statistics don't mean that much to me. Maybe when I'm older I'll sit down and look at them.

"At this moment in time I'm not driven by statistics or records, I just want to do well."

He had earlier dismissed determined opener Neil McKenzie lbw to claim his 200th Test victim and become the 12th England bowler to achieve such a feat.

Flintoff's performance was capped by a compelling duel with Jacques Kallis, who had his off stump removed for 64 after the England all-rounder's temper was raised by umpire Alim Dar's rejection of an lbw appeal when he was on 55.

It sparked a stunning response from Flintoff, reminiscent of his brilliant over to Ricky Ponting in the 2005 Ashes Test at the same ground, and he admitted: "When you're bowling against one of the best players in the world like Kallis, it brings the best out of me - it was up there with one of my better spells.

"It means a lot to us getting back into the series and doing well for England and I think we showed that. Having not scored enough runs in the first place, to get back into this position we've fought hard."