Kevin Pietersen infuriatingly gave his wicket away on the verge of another milestone, as England toiled for runs in the opening Test against the West Indies on Wednesday.
No England batsman looked to have mastered the steady, if not menacing, West Indies attack that featured a marathon 33-over spell from Sulieman Benn. But Pietersen showed his class in three and a half hours at the crease and looked set for another Test century, after clattering two fours and a six off successive balls from Benn.
The former England captain appeared to have the beanpole left-arm spin bowler at his mercy when he tried to clear the wide long-on boundary with another slog/sweep, but he top-edged and was caught by the keeper. His dismissal brought the West Indies back into the match, after Pietersen had added 86 for the fifth wicket with Andrew Flintoff to rescue England from a shaky 94 for four.
PHOTO: AFP
But Flintoff put his head down and found Matt Prior a steady ally, and they batted through the one and a half hours to add 56 and save England from desperation.
It had looked desperate for England when they stumbled to 73 for three at lunch after they chose to bat on a hard, easy-paced pitch. The visitors lost their captain Andrew Strauss for 7, their vice-captain Alastair Cook for 4 and Ian Bell for 28.
Strauss, playing in his first Test following the upheaval that led to the resignation of Pietersen looked shaky from the start. He edged the second ball of the match from Jerome Taylor just short of second slip and in the third over he edged the same bowler to third slip, where Xavier Marshall dropped him on 1.
But Taylor put him out of his misery when Strauss was caught behind playing forward defensively.
Daren Powell added to England’s woes when he had Cook caught at mid-on. The left-hander mistimed a pull to leave the visitors on 30 for two.
Pietersen joined Bell and they spent the next hour and 10 minutes repairing the early damage with a stand of 41 for the third wicket.
Bell was looking to “shut-up shop” as the interval approached when he played defensively forward, edged and was caught at slip.
After lunch, Pietersen continued to erase the bad memories of the last few weeks as he reached his half-century and carried England to 132 for four at tea.
Pietersen slashed his short, wide 117th delivery from Daren Powell through the slips for the sixth of his seven boundaries to reach 50. He then celebrated when he hooked a slow long hop from Powell through backward square and had held England’s innings together after they subsided to 94 for four about 45 minutes after lunch.
England’s batsmen were tied down after the interval by the left-arm spin bowling of Benn and the uncomplicated off-spin of Gayle. The batsmen fought hard to negotiate the appreciable bounce and turn the two extracted from the pitch and could only add 27 runs during the period, which was interrupted by a 22-minute stoppage for rain.
The pressure, however, proved too much for Paul Collingwood and he was out leg before wicket for 16, struck on the back leg by a delivery that spun through his forward defensive shot.
But Pietersen and Flintoff started to shake the shackles free when Gayle brought Powell back for a second spell from the northern end and he was wayward. After the break, Pietersen and Flintoff spent another 40 minutes navigating the treachery before a bit of fortune came the West Indies’ way.
■ KENYA V ZIMBABWE
AFP, NAIROBI
Zimbabwe completed a series clean sweep over Kenya on Wednesday, winning the fifth and final match by seven wickets.
Zimbabwe, propped up by an unbeaten third-wicket partnership of opener Hamilton Masakadza (84) and Sean Williams (63), easily surpassed their target with 15 overs to spare.
In a match dominated by seamers, Graeme Cremer claimed a career best 4-31 as Kenya were reduced to a paltry 199 after winning the toss.
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