England enjoy the serious business

Andrew Flintoff - sporting Steve Harmison's shirt - is embraced by his captain

If you are struggling to get your head around the concept of England playing Middlesex in a Twenty20 match in Antigua, I suspect watching the coin toss didn’t help.

There stood Kevin Pietersen and Shaun Udal, county team-mates at Hampshire barely a year ago but now opposing captains in a floodlit encounter thousands of miles from English shores.

It was one of many apparent contradictions on an evening of no little drama which ended - perversely in the world of modern sport, when success is paramount - with both skippers claiming to be pleased with his side’s work.

When Udal called wrongly at the toss, he received a playful cuff round the chops from a grinning Pietersen, who moments later was promising to play “some hard cricket”.

The game itself followed a similar pattern, with some mightily effective bowling and innovative batting punctured by moments of almost slapstick fielding.

Nine catches were put down in total - in mitigation, the floodlights made picking the ball up extremely difficult - but there are few other ways to describe the sitter that Andrew Strauss spilled to reprieve Andrew Flintoff off Shaun Udal.

Batsman, fielder and even bowler managed to see the funny side after what must rank one of the worst drops in the history of professional cricket, and smiles were never far away from the faces of most of the players during a match that remained in the balance until the final over.

There was some good-natured ribbing for Owais Shah as he came out to bat against his county employers, while Strauss was given a friendly send-off by international colleague Ryan Sidebottom after he was bowled aiming across the line.

Middlesex captain Shaun Udal refuses to let Andrew Strauss' comical drop ruin his evening

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There may not have been any money at stake - that comes later in the week - but there was no little pride in danger of being damaged and, in that regard, England emerged from this potentially tricky encounter against a highly skilled 20-over outfit largely unscathed.

The batting may have lacked dynamism at times, but the maturity shown by Owais Shah during his ultimately decisive unbeaten 39 is worthy of immense credit, and Stuart Broad’s stock as a one-day international bowler continues to rise thanks to a fine spell that brought him figures of 4-0-13-1, almost unheard of in Twenty20 cricket.

Samit Patel, Pietersen himself and Flintoff also excelled with the ball, and the skipper showed his worth in the field by successfully defending what appeared a below-par total - with some comfort in the end.

As Sir Allen Stanford enjoyed himself in the stands - at one stage he had a young lady on each knee - the serious business was taking place on the pitch, the upshot of which was another England win under Pietersen’s command, the sixth in as many games since his appointment.

The sight of Flintoff bowling a magnificent final over wearing Steve Harmison’s shirt - he left his at the hotel by mistake - was a fitting end to a game that skirted the edges of surrealism.

As if to underline that impression, Pietersen, the winning captain, was interviewed after the match against a backdrop of his players being ‘punished’ with extra fielding practice.