Pietersen Hundred Buries South Africa

Pietersen off the mark with a
boundary to mid wicket

There was a strange echo ringing about Headingley on the third day as that other Pietersen unloaded one his best against South Africa and batted his side back into the match.

Chasing 400 plus, England's innings was beset by contributions but no scores. Andrew Strauss, Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott and to a lesser extent Ian Bell had all made starts and spent significant time in the middle combating the South African pace attack but by tea, England were a long way from salvation at 4-183. Kevin Pietersen had not long been joined by the Mini Me of England cricket, James Taylor and matching South Africa's first innings still looked like an Everest to climb.

The long, long last session, which finished when most would have been on their third or fourth round at the boozer and staggered out to 42 overs, was diabolical for the visitors as Pietersen played the sort of innings only he and a few players in the history of the game could. He added 106 off his own bat in the session as England took 167 runs at four an over. The second new ball had no effect, taken when Pietersen was knocking on the door of his hundred and only three balls after Vernon Philander sent the shiny red missile down, Pietersen had three figures ... the second half of it from only 52 deliveries. He picked on Dale Steyn unmercifully  starting with two vicious pulls sent to the leg boundary from short stuff in the first over he faced and when Steyn was sick of that, Pietersen drove him through the covers with monotonous ease. Thirteen of his 22 boundaries came from "the best bowler in the world".

Long & the short -
Pietersen and Taylor

At the other end, Taylor made an impressive debut, batting for two and a half hours in a partnership of 147 with Pietersen bought the match alive. Matt Prior was blazing before stumps and with the deficit less than seventy it will be interesting to see what the teams can make of it.

Kevin Pietersen has always been an immensely interesting cricketer. His batting can sometimes have all the grace of a praying mantis over-dosed on insecticide and what one day is called irresponsible, can just as easily be called audacious the next. Others like Doug Walters or Ian Botham were equally vexing for fans who expected consistency and tried to pick the day when the magic fairy dust would descend and the miracles would happen. In the second innings at The Oval, Pietersen was worked over by Morne Morkel and played a dumb or dumber shot and added little to what could have reasonably been expected as a fight from the England top order. Today, with most of the batting gone and only a rooky to bat with, he exploded and took advantage of the long afternoon the South Africans were forced to endure and sent them into retreat.

Playing audaciously of
the back foot for 4

Andrew Strauss knows how dangerous Pietersen is and equally, he knows his is a talent which has all of the Robert Louis Stevenson touches to it. With all the superstars Ian Chappell played with, he still maintains that the first bloke he would pick in any dream team he captained would be Dougie Walters because he could win a game in a session. The problem for the likes of Chappelli and now Strauss is being patient between miracles.

Coaches world wide make plans to remove threats and Pietersen, nine times out of ten is a batsman who succumbs to those plans. He is bold and brash and emotional and often acts before thinking and it brings him undone in both his private and public life. Little wonder he and a certain ex leg spinner of note are great mates! However, any opposition who discounts Pietersen, confident they have his measure, usually have a shock in store.

Dale Steyn got that shock today.

Steyn had no answers

Pietersen is a man who operates outside the boundaries in life which constrain the rest of us. We shun and criticise, often out of jealousy and thecricketragics are as guilty as others. We expect to wind him in on a leash and are revolted when he bucks.

Strauss shields him as best he can because he knows that the time it takes Pietersen to go from finger painting to masterpiece is very short, very dramatic and entirely awesome. After today and his 21st hundred (tied with Strauss and one ahead of Cook) this mercurial scattered genius only has Cowdrey, Boycott and Hammond standing one ahead of him on the list of century makers for England.

None of them batted with his audacity or adventure and its hard to imagine a more delightful century coming from any of them.

Some days, a day's play is awfully good to watch, even if it's at night time. Thanks to KP, this was one of those days.