Kevin Pietersen's ultimately futile 62 from 40 balls today against Pakistan was superb, filled with some really brilliant shots. A couple of massive sixes and a few proper cricket shots, the bottom line is he scored plenty of runs very quickly. Razzaq's faintly ridiculous 46 off 18 aside, no one else really looked like scoring runs as easily as he did, which is a mark of just how good an innings it was.
So is he back to his best? He was hitting the ball exceptionally hard today, the one that Shahid Afridi 'dropped' must have come at him at a million miles an hour. That's a good sign, he's had a bit of time in the middle now and he was certainly middling it.
During Sky's coverage they showed a graphic which listed the top ten Twenty20 International scorers, Pietersen lies second in that list, with a significantly better strike rate than the man above him - Brendon McCullum - and that's some achievement in itself.
He's a vital player for England across all forms of cricket and if indeed he is back to himself then it might not be so far fetched to think that England could challenge for top honours in the World Twenty20 in May....
On another note, I think its time to try England's 16th opening pair in Twenty20 cricket, Denly looks a bit out of his depth at this stage and today Trott seemed either unwilling or unable to change gear. Lumb and Kieswetter, that's the pair we need I reckon.
Posts
The World Cup is here Again!
6 months ago
2 comments:
Yeah he was batting a lot better. In SA he was gifting his wicket by looking to slog. In the two T/20 games though he was looking to be innovative but wasn't really trying to slog.
Yes, I notice a distinct lack of reverse sweeps and switch-hits in both Twenty20 innings, that's probably sensible if he wants to get back to his very best form, which we need him to be!
Post a Comment