The Aston Villa striker had not hit the target in an important match for his country since netting against Denmark in Japan seven years ago.

But Heskey was on hand to effectively kill off the contest in first-half stoppage-time with the simplest of tap-ins, after Gareth Barry had settled England's nerves with the opener minutes earlier.

Wayne Rooney and a Frank Lampard penalty then gave a flattering look to the scoreline in the second period to make it 4-0 at the final whistle.

Victory maintained their perfect record in Group Six, and they will have one foot in the finals in South Africa next summer if they dispose of bottom-placed Andorra at Wembley on Wednesday.

Kazakhstan have a reputation for playing well in the first half of their qualifiers and they knocked an inept England out of their stride in the early stages.

In the first minute Glen Johnson was guilty of giving the ball away and allowed Alexandr Kirov to send in a low centre and it needed captain John Terry to make a last-ditch interception to deny Sergey Ostapenko.

A minute later the stadium erupted when Ostapenko headed in an inswinging free-kick from Zhambyl Kukeyev, but the joy was cut short as he had strayed marginally offside.

England slowly began to get a foothold in the game and a low shot from Heskey was turned onto the post by goalkeeper Alexandr Mokin after good play by Wayne Rooney.

A Terry header from a Frank Lampard corner was then saved by Mokin before England took control with two goals in six minutes before the interval.

Barry broke the deadlock after 40 minutes with his first competitive goal for his country.

Steven Gerrard sent over a deep cross after playing a short corner with Ashley Cole, and Barry had the time and space to pick his spot and head past Mokin.

Then on the stroke of half-time came that Heskey rarity. Gerrard was again involved in the build-up with his deflected cross taking Mokin by surprise, and Heskey was on hand to tuck away the loose ball.

There was little that was memorable about the second 45 minutes before a piece of quick thinking by Rooney brought him the third goal with 18 minutes remaining.

Johnson's centre was turned goalwards by the Manchester United striker, only for Mokin to keep out his effort at full length.

But Rooney was alert to the rebound and his scissor kick ended up in the roof of the net.

Lampard then took England's goal tally in the group stages to 20 when he drilled home a penalty after Heskey had been brought down by Renat Abdulin.