Kevin Pietersen hailed the superstar qualities of Andrew Flintoff after England defeated South Africa by 20 runs at Headingley.

Although captain Pietersen claimed the man-of-the-match award in the NatWest Series opener with an unbeaten 90 and two wickets, all-rounder Flintoff hit his best score in a one-day international for three years and provided controlled aggression with the ball.

Flintoff hit 78 during a stand of 158 with Pietersen that boosted England to 275 for four - and finished the contest by cleaning up the South African tail.

"The man is a superstar," said Pietersen. "Some people are born into this world who are just superstars. The skill he has with that cricket ball in hand is second to none.

"He can come in and bowl at practice with one arm down and still hit a length. I am fortunate I can throw the ball to a guy like him, it's brilliant.

"And I enjoyed batting with him - the last time we saw that was at Edgbaston in 2005 against Australia, so long may that continue."

Pietersen is guarding against another false dawn, however, knowing the tendency for England to win opening contests only to falter in one-day campaigns.

"There is some really positive stuff happening in English cricket at the moment but we start every series well and then mess the next four up," Pietersen said.

"We have had a pretty good start but there is no point in resting on our laurels. It is a case of building on it - yes we have played well here - so Tuesday at Trent Bridge is a big fixture.

"Everybody performed today and if that continues we will be a pretty hard team to beat, so the key for us now is to fight hard on Tuesday."

Proteas captain Graeme Smith, meanwhile, conceded England had outplayed his side after the fourth-wicket alliance wrested the initiative.

"We lacked a little bit of skill," Smith said. "We were outplayed in a lot of departments.

"We kept ourselves in the game with our intensity and the energy levels with which we played.

"Even when we were batting we were way ahead of the rate for a long time but lost wickets to soft run-outs and soft dismissals."