KP--England's Lone Box Office Star

Everone scores runs against India....and WI..
Bresnan blasted a near hundred.....and Bell a big double hundred....last summer....and the entire Aussie batting line up boosted their averages against Ind.


But when the opponent is of the quality of SA......with 4 world class pacers......on a pitch assisting fast bowlers.......and when the team is coming from a defeat, drubbing of historical size.......and the current inning is in tatters......only a few batsmen have the X factor to hold the situation, the opponent and the overall adversity by the scruff of the neck and override it with brilliance, flair, authority and a touch of disdain......

Kevin Pietersen on his good days( which are quite a few) stands besides Lara, Tendulkar and Richards as the modern day batsmen having this mix of dominance and flair...he is England's lone Box Office star now and in the last few decades ( although as allrounder Botham had the same aura and Flintoff also in a smaller quantity ).

Pietersen is very good......and he knows it......and occassionally shows it........and I am a fan ( hence my name)......and I had sensed he will stamp himself on this series....which I also sense might be his last on English soil.

Unfortunately Flower and ECB under the guise of rules / team/ processes paint their Lone superstar with same brush as the other good/ medciores ones in the team........as does a big chunk of English media too....turning him into a bit of a loner......

It's a matter of time....they will lose him...if they can't feed and nurture the stardom that drives him.

With 90 tests, 7000 runs 50+ average.....he has little left to prove.....and probably nil patience to deal with Flower's agenda and ECB's bureaucracy.

I hope what I am sensing turns out to be wrong....else loss is entirely England's.

This would be great if these KP innings didn't tend to be years apart everytime

GSC wrote:This would be great if these KP innings didn't tend to be years apart everytime

He's made 9 scores of 150 or more (10 if he scores 1 more run tomorrow) in 7 years...

He played seriously well," said Donald, South Africa's bowling coach.

"It reminds me of when I ran into Brian Lara, something in the category of a bit of a genius to play knocks like that."

not one word of appreciation from Flower or his spokesmen Strauss etal.

There is almost a grudging silence in the English camp....even the opinionated Swann that has something to say about everything...almost daily...is uncharecteristically shut

Swann's probably otherwise occupied, taking cat to the vet and so on....

GSC that's a ludicrous comment. He has 21 Test centuries in 7 years, is the fastest man to 7,000 Test runs (in terms of time) and, as has been pointed out, has 9 scores of 150+ in amongst that. You are talking utter drivvle to suggest he is inconsistent, one only has to look at an average of a shade under 50 to see that.

There is always an underlying feeling that there could be more from Pietersen, he is after all THAT good, but that only highlights his magnificent talent as opposed to any real shortcomings.

That innings is what separates him from Bell etc and this is why I rate Lara above Sachin.
In 10 years time some poster will say, it was only 149 but you have to watch it to fully appreciate the knock.

He saves and wins plenty of cricket matches for England, alma. That is playing for the team.

He is an entertainer, so part of that has to come with an acceptance that he will get out in a soft manner from time to time.

The NZ tour thing hasn't been settled yet, so that isn't 100% happening.

It would be a disaster for England and the cricket loving public if KP were to retire from Test cricket. I don't think he will, but I pray that he doesn't as he really is one of England's greats.

Tell me a star cricker who doesn't get out in a 'soft' way. It happens to all the great players all the time. I saw most of it on the box, and it was a brilliant knock. Gives us a fighting chance to draw the series at Lords, although I fear it will have to be a turning wicket to give us any hope, as the seamers have under whelmed from all ends.

How do you account for his miserable failures against Pakistan then? Asif, Aamer, Ajmal & Rehman have been all over him like a rash in 2 test series.

England failed collectively as a team and were significantly under-cooked. It was a blip (admittedly a rather huge one).

In the Asif, Aamer series that you speak of almost every batsman failed miserably in what were horrific batting conditions. Again, against high quality swing bowling, that wouldn't have been easy for anyone.

People are allowed poor series. The fact that you can count poor KP series on one hand speaks volumes for his consistency.

England's ascent to the top of the rankings wasn't based on Pietersen's batting - it was Cook, Trott & Bell who did the hard yards. It's a team game & Flower thankfully understands that.

Fists of Fury wrote:England failed collectively as a team and were significantly under-cooked. It was a blip (admittedly a rather huge one).

In the Asif, Aamer series that you speak of almost every batsman failed miserably in what were horrific batting conditions. Again, against high quality swing bowling, that wouldn't have been easy for anyone.

People are allowed poor series. The fact that you can count poor KP series on one hand speaks volumes for his consistency.

Pietersen though failed more than anyone bar Bell in the UAE & Trott shone the in the summer of 2010. If Pietersen is so good, how do you account for 2 such miserable failures?

amanuensis wrote:
Pietersen though failed more than anyone bar Bell in the UAE & Trott shone the in the summer of 2010. If Pietersen is so good, how do you account for 2 such miserable failures?

Sorry to b.utt in... I like your arguments...that if you don't like someone....pick his two worst out of his 90 odd tests and make those odd "miserable failures " to prove your point...and discount the better part of the reamining 88 tests....welldone...
and you have outdone one "expert" Simon Hughes...who in a post-T1-monumental-debacle-analysis with other lumanaries on TV.....summed it up with " it is all Pietersen's fault".
Before Michael Vaughan interrupted with some balanced reasons.

Because 2 failures in amongst god knows how many Test series in which he has participated isn't a disaster by any stretch.

He has scored heavy runs against both spin and swing bowling before, and has done since. Those failures were an anomaly as opposed to the norm, hence why they can be disregarded in the overall scheme of things.

Fists of Fury wrote:Because 2 failures in amongst god knows how many Test series in which he has participated isn't a disaster by any stretch.

He has scored heavy runs against both spin and swing bowling before, and has done since. Those failures were an anomaly as opposed to the norm, hence why they can be disregarded in the overall scheme of things.

Hogwash - for a start, Asif has always had the wood over him & he wasn't able to pick Ajmal in either series.

KP_fan wrote:

amanuensis wrote:
Pietersen though failed more than anyone bar Bell in the UAE & Trott shone the in the summer of 2010. If Pietersen is so good, how do you account for 2 such miserable failures?

Sorry to b.utt in... I like your arguments...that if you don't like someone....pick his two worst out of his 90 odd tests and make those odd "miserable failures " to prove your point...and discount the better part of the reamining 88 tests....welldone...
and you have outdone one "expert" Simon Hughes...who in a post-T1-monumental-debacle-analysis with other lumanaries on TV.....summed it up with " it is all Pietersen's fault".
Before Michael Vaughan interrupted with some balanced reasons.

I don't dislike him - I simply regard him as very flawed, like pretty much all players. He has his strengths, but obvious weaknesses too.

He averages 30 against Pakistan when Asif has played - hardly an enormous disaster.

Haters gonna hate....

Correct, DJB.

and when the challange to chase was stif....England's go to man was KP.........and Eng's realistic chances lasted as long as he did.

KP as a person generates at best mixed feelings and, in some, hostility. But I cannot understand the degree of hostility towards his performance as a batsman. Some flaws in technique and temperament have been show up during his career. But his ability to transform matches in a few hours and to dominate the opposition has been shown on numerous occasions and in a way matched by very few on the current international scene.

Very well said CHB........very true.

KP would start a series poorly the entire English media will be sitting on his head. Then he would score a hundred or a double and then they would be like other than that innings has been pretty poor. Then he, like any player would have the odd failure and the critiques would put all the failures in a collectiv and would argue that he's been pretty poor. Pietersen has to be pretty poor if you take out his 21 test hundreds and all his 50s!. You have to really give it to these people!!!.