Portsmouth 7 Reading 4.

Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp admitted he never thought Benjani Mwaruwari would end up scoring a Barclays Premier League hat-trick.

The Zimbabwe international went away with the match ball on a crazy day of scoring by both sides at Fratton Park.

Never before had a Premier League match contained 11 goals, eight of which arrived in the second half, and those final 45 minutes also included Pompey goalkeeper David James saving a penalty and midfielder Papa Bouba Diop having a header ruled out because a colleague was offside.

Hermann Hreidarsson, Nico Kranjcar, Sean Davis and Sulley Muntari were the home side's other scorers but it was Benjani whose performance Redknapp admitted had pleased the most.

The 29-year-old is hardly a prolific scorer, netting just six times last season after taking 15 games to score his first Pompey goal having moved from Auxerre in January 2006 for a £4.1m fee.

Indeed, he would not have started against Reading had injured Kanu not been ruled out.

Redknapp said: ''I never thought he would score a lot of goals. I would be a liar if I sat here and said I thought he would. He is not a massive scorer but he works and doesn't give defenders any rest.

''He makes goals as well and that's why it was lovely to see him weigh in with three.''

The goal-fest was all the more remarkable because Redknapp had decided to use Benjani as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 formation even though they were at home.

He said: ''My decision was whether to switch to 4-4-2 or stay with the 4-5-1, which is a system that keeps the game tight.

''You get chances but it is more likely to be a 1-0 game like at Blackburn last week. When we went 2-0 up I thought 'with this system I can't see them scoring' - but we ended up with 11 goals.''

Benjani's goals in the seventh and 37th minutes gave Pompey a lead which did not flatter them such had been their superiority.

But Stephen Hunt pulled one back just before the half-time whistle and three minutes after the restart Dave Kitson made it 2-2 after David James had rashly rushed out of his goal.

Diop's disallowed goal was quickly followed by Hreidarsson's header to put the home side back in front but Nicky Shorey's failure to beat James from the penalty spot after Diop had handballed proved to be Reading's downfall.

Pompey raced ahead with Benjani completing his hat-trick and Kranjcar heading home from close range before Reading substitute Shane Long pulled one back by deflecting James Harper's drive past James.

Sean Davis made it 6-3 when his long-range effort was deflected off the head of Ivar Ingimarsson before Muntari made no mistake from the spot.

Shorey's shot was deflected in off Sol Campbell to complete an unprecedented spate of scoring.