LONDON: Kevin Pietersen's gangling frame sprawled all over Lord's for the first half of the second day as he quietly tore Sri Lanka's passive attack to shreds. His 158 was remarkable not so much for the big hits — two 6s as he evaded the legside trap of two fielders with ease and 19 fours off 205 balls — but for his patience, his self control and his desire to extract every last run from a pitch which could not have been more friendly if it had his name printed down the centre.

Throughout this five-hour innings I tried to recall anyone who had, in the last 130 years batted as Pietersen does. I guess that the left-handed South African powerhouse Graeme Pollock, another huge man with eyesight that must have been the envy of hawks and the stamina of a Grand National winner, comes as near as anyone. Pollock batted left-handed, of course, which makes an exact comparison difficult and so did Clive Lloyd who was more languid, but most of the men over 6ft 4in like Pietersen turned to fast bowling in their teens and left the sissy business of batting to the little guys.

Dynamic

It is not just the size and strength of Pietersen that makes him stand out as anyone must who score 1,000 runs in his first 12 Tests as he did on Friday. Only Herbert Sutcliffe and Andrew Strauss have been quicker. He is also, for all the hair colouring, the tattoos and the glamorous girlfriends a thoroughly careful and professional cricketer.

At each milestone he removes his helmet and makes a point of thanking the crowd for their applause. When he is given out — as he was lbw to Chaminda Vaas today — he strides off without a pause.

Perhaps I might appreciate him more if he showed a temperamental outburst from time to time but I have to confess that although I admire his batting I do not relish the prospect of watching him bat all day. He has the strength, but none of the grace, he has the strokes — like the top spun pull which causes him to tackle short balls outside the off stump by moving far beyond his wicket — but they are all about power and although his defence is solid and compact it lacks the style of a Lara, a Gower or a Tendulkar.

Inventive mind

No-one can deny his effectiveness, nor his ability to build an innings, nor his machine-like run-scoring ability. In the middle of that there is an inventive mind as he proved today when he tried to reverse sweep Muttiah Muralitharan, a desire beyond the imagination of most batsmen. I would rather watch Gordon Greenidge or Martin Crowe or Jacques Kallis but I have the suspicion he will be greater than any of these masters and that he has it in him to accomplish feats we have not seen from an England batsman since the war. Brian Lara's world Test record of 400 is in danger while Pietersen is playing and at 26 he has time on his side.

His innings, and his record stand of 173 with Paul Collingwood, enabled Andrew Flintoff to declare at 551 for six — England's highest against Sri Lanka — after his own merry innings of 33.

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