The Hindu : Sport : Kevin Pietersen lights up a dull day

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Mar 10, 2006

Sport

Sport

Kevin Pietersen lights up a dull day

S. Ram Mahesh

POWER PLAY: Kevin Pietersen, in the course of his strokeful half-century, seemed to pick debutant Chawla for some special treatment. — Photo: S. Subramanium

Mohali: You don't curse the weather god. For his retribution is cruel: on a frustrating start-stop day that saw England finish at 163 for four from 50.3 overs, the sun played hooky till play was called off.

The stumps were barely uprooted when the ground was awash with gold.

Already two-and-a-half hours have been lost; play is scheduled to start half hour early at 9.30 a.m. on Friday, but with the weather playing up (showers are forecast), some decisions that might border on the foolhardy will be needed to throttle out a result.

The deep-growled thunder and the accompanying showers early Thursday morning ensured the start was delayed by 45 minutes. India dropped Laxman and Kaif — Yuvraj returned, paceman Munaf Patel and 17-year-old leggie Piyush Chawla (the second-youngest after Sachin Tendulkar) made debuts, as India went in with five bowlers. Flintoff won another toss, England batted.

KP of the old

When Kevin Pietersen strode to the wicket, his adopted side had lost two wickets in under 13 overs. The few minutes to lunch were waited out, Chawla was allowed a maiden; after the forty-minute break, he was KP of old: full of thrilling possibilities even when playing defensively.

He sunk his teeth into Chawla, extending his power-drunk, tattooed arms to swipe him over the mid-wicket fence and sweep him hard to square-leg.

Once he lost control but still managed to clear mid-off. The Pietermarirzberg-born Pietersen then cuffed Munaf straight. But undoubtedly the stroke of the day was when he swaggered to off-stump, placing his front foot outside Pathan's cross-hair, and reached his wrists out in front of him to on-drive. A certain Viv Richards left similarly sinister calling cards.

Ian Bell played a bit-part role before misreading Kumble's doosra to become number 497 and trudged off bewildered.

Munaf was all over the shop in his first spell, but returned admirably. Touching speeds of over 140 kmphs, he veered a wicked yorker into Collingwood to gasps all round. The wild-eyed lad from Ikhar had his first wicket when he forced Pietersen (64, 108b, 10x4, 1x6) to hit one back.

Earlier, the openers had started well. Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook have to their running an urgency found among jail-breakers who realise the distant siren doesn't sound that distant any longer. They tipped and ran — nudges, deflections, pushes were all followed by well-judged gallops. The early edges filtered through gaps as 35 came with seemingly no effort.

Harbhajan's off-spin was first seen in the eighth over — after a pushed through preliminary over at over 56 mphs, he slowed it through the air (49-52 mphs) to blandish the bounce the opening bowlers had failed to extract. A couple climbed off a length, but it was Irfan Pathan who struck first.

How Strauss contrived to get wood on a Pathan delivery, that even barge-poles of some standing would have refrained from, even he would be hard-pressed to explain.

The ball was so wide it very nearly didn't make it to the track; short, it moved further off the seam to find in the order mentioned an ill-advised cut stroke, and the middle of Dhoni's orange mitts in front of Dravid's ankles at first slip.

The left-handed opener has had three starts in three innings this series — stints in which he's looked the part, his footwork quick and concise, his bat straight. But, the mental stamina needed for the innings eternal has eluded him thus far on tour.

His younger partner, with a fifty and hundred on debut, might reacquaint him with a thing or two. But Thursday wasn't Cook's day.

Part two of Pathan's double strike involved deception. The seam pointed to second slip, and if Cook did what some batsman claim to — watch the stitches on the seam — he would have concluded it would leave him. Instead, it held its angle (left-arm over to left-hand bat) and even shaped in a smidgeon. The Essex youngster played around it, and was struck in line.

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