The Hindu : Sport : Pietersen comes to England's rescue with a blistering knock

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Wednesday, Jul 13, 2005

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Pietersen comes to England's rescue with a blistering knock

Ted Corbett

FIRST STRIKE: Brett Lee is ecstatic after claiming the wicket of Marcus Trescothick. — Photo: AP

LONDON: : England, at its feeblest, found Australia at its well-drilled best in the final one-day international of the Ashes tour at the Oval and, inevitably, fell far short of a winning total, although it was impossible to find an excuse or a reason for its low total of 228 for seven.

Even the dynamic Kevin Pietersen seemed overawed — why since the two sides were level in the NatWest Challenge 1-1? — though he eventually produced a barrage of shots and made top score of 74 off 84 balls with two sixes and seven fours. How the crowd love him. They revelled in each big shot and they knew he deserved better support. Long before the end of the England innings Australia seemed assured of victory in its 600th one-dayer.

Pietersen, still batting at No.4 which seems the wrong place, where he almost always gets to the wicket with his lookalike Andrew Flintoff, did not find a reliable partner until England played its supersub card and put Vikram Solanki in to bat instead of the bowler Simon Jones. Solanki arrived at the wicket with six down and Pietersen on 21 in the 28th over. It was not until the 40th over that England blossomed and found 80 runs in the last ten overs.

Before the Pietersen-Solanki stand the big crowd enjoying their week of summer sunshine had nothing but gloom. Michael Vaughan, the England captain, lost the toss and with it, in theory, the match, since being able to choose to field means under the new laws you can take best advantage of your substitute and in many cases play 12 men against your opponent's 11. In fact it was Vaughan who boldly went where no one-day tactician has been before by calling in Solanki.

Missed chances

First Marcus Trescothick laboured 12 balls over nought and was then bowled; Brett Lee`s 200th one-day victim. Michael Vaughan was dropped by Jason Gillespie, who for all his three wickets still looks totally without confidence, as he made 15 off 30 balls before being run out by a direct hit from Ricky Ponting. Andrew Strauss raced to 36 before being caught behind at 61 by Adam Gilchrist who had dropped an earlier chance. These missed chances were blips; for the rest of the innings Australia was an advertisement for the health and efficiency of their sporty nation.

The vaunted middle order of Flintoff, Paul Collingwood and Geraint Jones made only 15 between them and disaster loomed at 93 for six but Pietersen and Solanki doubled the score before Gillespie outwitted Pietersen as he tried to steer the ball through the offside and stopped a century that was deserved if only because he showed the commonsense Flintoff displayed in the previous match.

Pietersen began slowly but once he felt he could let go there was a six into the crowd at mid-on — caught one-handed over the line by Michael Kasprowicz — and, for a legside hitter, carved shots through the offside. Solanki retained his strokes and his elegance as he reached 53 in 62 balls to prove there is a place for a batting substitute in a first innings. I am still not convinced that the new regulations have a benefit for the one-day game and sure that they should not have been launched so soon.

Australia wasted no time and in five overs Steve Harmison and Darren Gough conceded 45 runs to the sledgehammer bats of Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. Gough's first 11 balls went for 21 runs and Vaughan took him off. It began to look as if his days as a clever one-day new ball bowler might be coming to an end. The idea is for Gough, 35, to stay around until the World Cup. His last few matches suggest that is no longer feasible, that England ought to give younger men like Chris Tremlett and Simon Jones their heads. Why was Gough not the one to be replaced by Solanki?

Harmison's third over cost 16 and even though Flintoff won back control at Gough's end and Harmison's fourth over cost only one run Australia had fifty on board by the eighth over and 65 in the tenth.

The pendulum has swung back in Australia's favour. England began the one-day games as if nothing could stop it; now Australia has found zip and form and confidence. Ashes? What Ashes?

AFP reports:

Thorpe available for Ashes

Meanwhile, veteran England batsman Graham Thorpe declared himself fit and available for selection for the upcoming Ashes series with Australia, which could see exciting South African-born rival Kevin Pietersen lose out.

The 35-year-old Surrey star hit 73 on his return to the county side on Monday and told BBC that his persistent back problems had eased considerably.

Thorpe, who became only the eighth England cricketer to reach a century of caps in the second Test against Bangladesh earlier in the summer, said he believed he had given England's Test team selectors `a bit of a headache' and is hoping for good news when the first Ashes squad is named on Thursday.

"I had a bit of work done to my back over the last two or three weeks and I feel freer than I did a month ago which is good," Thorpe told BBC radio.

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