EVERY 90mph missile that Steve Harmison propelled at South Africa's batsmen yesterday had a defiant message writ large across it.

Loosely speaking, it read: Drop me if you dare!

Axed for the Headingley Test last month, when the uncapped Kabir Ali was preferred to Harmison, the Ashington Express bowled his way on to England's winter tours of Asia and the Caribbean with a ferocious spell of fast bowling.

Extracting life from an otherwise unresponsive Oval pitch, Harmison's pace was the perfect foil for Martin Bicknell's guile as England rolled over South Africa inside an hour yesterday morning.

Harmison has always maintained he has felt at home as a Test player ever since he made his debut against India last year.

Now, however, after returning Test-best figures of four for 33 and helping to secure one of England's biggest wins in recent years, the 24-year-old has well and truly proved his international credentials.

Harmison's omission at Leeds was baffling - particularly as England went into the match with a five-pronged seam attack.

His exclusion meant the Durham paceman had gone from sharing the new ball with Andy Caddick in Melbourne and Sydney to the role of Test outcast in just eight months. But having made a positive impression on the Australians, particularly Steve Waugh, during the Ashes series, Harmison left an indelible mark on South African minds and limbs over the last two days.

Ian Botham has long championed Harmison's cause, although figures of 32 wickets at 35.50 apiece during his 11-Test career hardly mark him out as a world-class bowler.

When his radar is working, however, he is a fearsome proposition - capable of ruffling top-class batsmen, even the indefatigable Waugh, on placid wickets.

Harmison is at the vanguard of an exciting posse of English pace bowlers, including James Anderson, Ali and Simon Jones, recuperating well after his horrendous knee injury last November.

With Darren Gough retired from Test cricket and Caddick set to miss the winter tours, the way is clear for Harmison to nail down a regular place in the England team for the foreseeable future.

South Africa will rightly feel aggrieved that they did not win this series, having twice thrashed their hosts and had the better of a rain-affected draw. But England, so often slammed for letting slip commanding positions, will care not one jot about the tourists' gripes.

The Oval victory, coming at the end of an upbeat cricketing summer that included the introduction of the highly-successful Twenty20 Cup, was the perfect end to the season for the country's second sport.

Of course, Alec Stewart hogged the spotlight yesterday after his victorious valedictory appearance.

Marcus Trescothick, the returning Graham Thorpe and Andrew Flintoff also took leading roles along with the veteran Bicknell.

But standing tall was Harmison. He's not the finished article just yet, but this Oval Test could be the making of him.