The Hindu : Pietersen cracks century

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cricket

Pietersen cracks century

By Our Special Correspondent

GURGAON, FEB. 21. The enchanting cricket ambience at the TERI Oval brought the best out of the England `A' batsmen — Kevin Pietersen in particular — as South Zone bowlers put up a disappointing show on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy encounter here on Saturday.

Pietersen, the South Africa-born middle-order batsman, qualifies to play international cricket for England this September and his form on the current tour to India certainly paints a rosy future for him. His strokeful century established him as the most compact of the visiting batsmen and also placed the team in a comfortable position at 308 for seven.

Put in, the Englishmen distinguished themselves well in the afternoon when Pietersen (104 off 137 balls with 16 fours) and Mathew Prior (66 off 106 balls with eight fours and one six) produced a 143-run partnership of character for the fourth wicket and then Graham Napier continued the good work an innings of 43 (68 balls and eight fours).

The two-paced pitch presented a challenge to the English batsmen but Pietersen produced some good drives once he was settled. "I enjoyed my batting here. There was pressure on me because of expectations back home. Hopefully, I'll get some more runs on this tour,'' he said.

There was help in the pitch if the medium-pacers were prepared to bend their back but N. P. Singh and Sreeshant failed to make an impression. Of the South bowlers, only left-arm spinner Sunil Joshi toiled and was rewarded with three wickets. He, however, could have done better with some more control in the second session.

South suffered a blow in the morning when skipper S. Ramesh, in trying to catch Ed Smith in the slips, ended up with an injury on the small finger. Shockingly, there was no doctor at the ground and he was rushed to a clinic for treatment. Three stitches rule him out of the match even though he was prepared to bat if required. Keeping in mind the upcoming tour to Pakistan, Ramesh was quick to inform the National selectors at the ground — Syed Kirmani and Kiran More — that he would be fit to play in six days.

England `A' should be satisfied with the performance as it recovered from three quick dismissals beginning with Scott Newman and followed by Michael Lumb and Ed Smith. If only N. P. Singh held a return catch from Pietersen (41) at 117 South could have looked at dictating the opposition. But the 23-year-old Pietersen, with a first-class career average of 50-plus, stood firm and prospered in the company of Prior.

The scores:

England `A' _1st innings: Scott Newman (run out) 31, Ed Smith b N. P. Singh 27, Michael Lumb c Khaleel b Joshi 1, Kevin Pietersen c N. P. Singh b Joshi 104, Mathew Prior lbw b Joshi 66, Bilal Shafayat c Joshi b Ramkumar 0, Graham Napier (batting) 43, James Tredwell c Joshi b Sreeshant 43, Sajid Mahmood (batting) 2, Extras 19, Total (for seven wkts) 308.

Fall of wickets: 1-50, 2-55, 3-98, 4-241, 5-242, 6-244, 7-306.

South bowling: N. P. Singh 19-5-63-1, Sreeshant 9-1-41-1, Sunil Joshi 32-7-88-3, Ramkumar 21-4-63-1, Y. Venugopala Rao 5-1-17-0, S. Sriram 4-0-23-0.

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