What on Earth was he thinking? Yes, he’ll almost certainly end up as top scorer but here was an opportunity to score a hundred (bar a blatant LBW that wasn’t given), to dominate Australia and make a huge psychological blow early on. He could have batted on through the day and put England in a commanding position. Hauritz didn’t bowl too badly today but neither did he bowl terribly well.
One thing about Pietersen is that his self-belief is rock solid. He will know that Hauritz read him well, saw he was sweeping alot and tossed the ball a few inches wider goading Pietersen into either hitting the shot or pulling out. KP tried a paddle-sweep without moving his feet at all and, well, that was the end of that. His belief will not be rocked. He’ll walk out for his next innings as confident of scoring a ton as ever. In some ways, his over-confidence is his downfall. In other ways, his self-belief is a an almost Australian approach. Rather than mull over the shot, the footwork, the mindgames and so on, he just gets on with his next innings.
England have a battle on their hands this summer in the Ashes. Yes, the Ozzie attack isn’t what it was. Losing Warne’s wizardry and McGrath’s metronomical economy would have been difficult for any team in history to cope with. However, the Ozzie batting is arguably in better shape than it was in 2005. Hughes, Katich, Ponting, Clarke, North and Haddin are a tight bunch full of runs.
