Flower stresses on Pietersen’s importance – Cricket News Update
Despite his uneventful outing in the opening Test against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mumbai-c820.
It was Pietersen’s first game since his highly publicized fall-out with the ECB during the side’s last home series against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757. After patching up their respective differences, KP was included for the Indian tour and earned his share of appreciation over his devotion to the team.
Having displayed good form during the warm-up games, including a quick-fire century against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/PP-Ojha-c2198, who ensured that the player maintained his poor run against left-arm spinners.
In the first innings, he was constantly troubled by the spinner and was convincingly bowled after playing all around the ball. In the second outing, it took the spinner just four deliveries to account for the dangerman, as his attempted sweep to a fullish delivery saw the ball hit the timer for the second time.
In total, the player has been dismissed 25 times by a left-armer (spin) in Tests and on no less than 18 occasions in the shorter version, with 21 of those coming in the last two years across all formats. For a player of his class, it is baffling to note such statistics but Flower took a softer stance on the whole saga and backed the player to deliver the goods in the remainder of the series.
"Look, Kevin's a very fine cricketer and he has 21 Test centuries," Flower said. "This will not go down as one of his memorable Tests, of course, but he's got three more Tests to contribute to winning games for England.
"In this last Test the left-arm spinner got him out twice and he obviously struggled against him. But, only a few Tests ago against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, he scored a magnificent 150 and they had a reasonable left-arm spinner playing in subcontinent conditions. The method he used there was a very successful one. I'm not just talking about his very attacking method but his defensive one too. He's a very experienced cricketer and I trust he'll bring that experience to bear in the next Test match."
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