KEVIN PIETERSEN made a timely return from injury to secure England’s progress into the next stage of the World Twenty20 tournament following an emphatic win over Pakistan.

The former England captain missed Friday’s humiliating defeat by Holland with a recurrence of the Achilles problems which have plagued him since this winter’s tour of the Caribbean.

But after passing a strenuous fitness test before the must-win encounter at The Oval, Pietersen hit a matchwinning 58 off 38 balls as England bounced back from their opening match embarrassment to secure a 48-run victory.

Last night’s triumph, which was achieved before a 23,000 capacity Oval crowd, guarantees England’s progress to the Super Eight stage of the tournament on run-rate regardless of the result between Pakistan and Holland at Lord’s on Tuesday.

It was a startling turnaround from the nervous performance they delivered against the Dutch to one with more intent and purpose with England setting a competitive target of 185 for five before restricting Pakistan to 137 for seven.

Knowing they faced certain elimination if they were beaten, England suffered a shaky start with in-form opener Ravi Bopara brilliantly caught at backward point off the seventh ball of the innings.

It brought Pietersen to the crease earlier than he would have hoped, but in doing so it gave him an opportunity to shape the innings and lay the foundations for their impressive total.

Content at first to allow opener Luke Wright to be the aggressor, which he did impressively during his 34 off 16 balls which included England’s first six of the tournament pulled over mid-wicket off 17-year-old left-arm seamer Mohammad Aamir.

Wright became one of two victims for seamer Umar Gul, the leading wicket-taker in Twenty20 international history, when his off-stump was removed with a perfectly-executed yorker.

Pietersen then dominated a 66-run stand with Owais Shah off only 51 balls and looking nothing like a player seemingly doubtful for the match until minutes before the toss.

England benefited from a slapstick fielding display from Pakistan, which included missing Pietersen on 30 when off-spinner Saeed Ajmal missed a difficult return catch as one of four dropped catches – and a series of fielding errors.

The stand was finally broken once Gul returned to the attack and took out Shah’s leg-stump and just as Pietersen looked all set to launch a fierce onslaught in the final overs, he became one of two victims to fall in an over from Ajmal.

Captain Paul Collingwood was caught in the deep and four balls later, Pietersen finally mis-timed a shot and was caught close to the wicket having hit five fours and three sixes in his display.

It left England without any power-hitters for the final overs, but by then they had already secured a competitive target for Pakistan to chase on a surface favouring spin bowling.

England claimed wickets early during Pakistan’s reply with Stuart Broad making amends for his final over horror show against Holland to dismiss Salman Butt and Kamran Akmal.

Younis scored an unbeaten 46 off 31 balls but he could find no adequarte support as England eased to victory.

Scoreboard

England v Pakistan At The Brit Oval

England Innings

R S Bopara c Shoaib Malik b Aamer ..... 5

L J Wright b Umar Gul .........................34

K P Pietersen c Umar Gul b Ajmal .........58

O A Shah b Umar Gul ..........................33

P D Collingwood c Shahid Afridi b Ajmal 15

A D Mascarenhas not out ...................16

J S Foster not out ...............................14

Extras (lb3 w4 nb3 pens 0)..........10

Total 5 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs) ............................185

Fall: 1-9 2-62 3-128 4-152 5-156

Did Not Bat: A U Rashid, G P Swann, S C J Broad, J M Anderson.

Yasir Arafat 4-0-42-0. Aamer 3-0-31-1. Umar Gul 4-0-37-2. Shoaib Malik 1-0-13-0. Shahid Afridi 4-0-36-0. Ajmal 4-0-23-2.

Pakistan Innings

Shehzad c Collingwood b Mascarenhas . 4

Salman Butt c Bopara b Broad ............28

Kamran Akmal c L J Wright b Broad .... 6

Shoaib Malik c Foster b L J Wright .......20

Younus Khan not out .........................46

Shahid Afridi c Sub b Swann ................ 5

Misbah ul-Haq c Sub b Anderson ........10

Yasir Arafat c L J Wright b Broad .......... 4

Umar Gul not out ............................... 8

Extras (lb1 w5 pens 0)................. 6

Total 7 wkts Innings Complete (20 overs) ............................137

Fall: 1-13 2-41 3-41 4-87 5-102 6-117 7- 129

Did Not Bat: Mohammad Aamer, Saeed Ajmal.

Mascarenhas 2-0-14-1. Anderson 4-0-30-1.

Broad 3-0-17-3. A U Rashid 4-0-24-0. Swann 4-0-27-1. L J Wright 3-0-24-1.

England beat Pakistan by 48 runs.