http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KP-Pietersen-c1806 - Big Pete for the Big Occasion - Opinion
When all goes well for Kevin Pietersen of England, he is the best batsman in the world to watch. When all doesn’t go well with him, he is considered to be someone who doesn’t deserve his place in the team. Yet such is his nature that despite being brute
and brash, he is simply brilliant to watch, and be overawed by in an all important contest. Cricket analysts would never know what to expect from Pietersen but many would agree that when he delivers, he delivers big.
One can think off the mammoth 227 that he notched up against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749 needed to win the second Test to gain a commanding lead, and in light of
mutterings of his technical failings, Pietersen rose to the occasion and hammered the Australian bowlers all around the park. The result was a famous English victory which set the tone for the rest of the series.
His critics have been vociferous in their justifications regarding his attitude and the manner in which he approaches the game at times. Pietersen has a voracious appetite for the leg side and this fact surfaced when he was in the nascent stages of this
career. In 2005, he responded by smashing 158 in the fifth and final Test match of the 2005 Ashes series. Such was the impact of his stroke play that all the criticism made way for huge cheers and acceptance of the fact that a star was born. Five years later
came the all important T20 Final against the same opposition in the World Cup. Pietersen, who was quiet for the most part of the series, not only struck the winning knock at Barbados, but comprehensively threw Australia out of the game. The writing was on
the wall. Here was a man for the big occasion and a man who loved to prove a point.
Proving a point was what Pietersen has been going on about, when he was fast tracked into the English side. His justifications of playing for England were far–fetched, yet logical. The frustration of being drowned in the controversial quota selection system
in his native http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 meant that Pietersen had to avail his maternal lineage to play for a country that gave birth to the game. What South Africans viewed as a felony became a source of pride for Pietersen, who went about a rampage on his 2004-05 tour
to his native land. The castigation from the hostile South African crowd only stung him into action by scoring three magnificent centuries for this new allegiance. Such was the impact of his stroke play that the initially hostile crowd met him with a standing
ovation. To have the ability to hone down an aggressive nation such as South Africa was indeed an impressive effort. The writing was on the wall. Here was a star that was born.
Pietersen’s reign of terror had only begun since he came onto the scene in the mid 2000s. In a space of a couple of years, he established himself as England’s best batsman. Mutterings of his technical failings however, kept going unabated and as is the case
with Pietersen he has silenced his critics time and again. Pietersen can thus be classified as a classic example of the old adage, which says that ‘ form is temporary, yet class is permanent.’
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