Pietersen happy to defend England’s cautious approach

9:25am Saturday 8th March 2008

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KEVIN Pietersen delivered an old-fashioned Test innings as England waged a defensive battle with New Zealand in an attempt to prevent them taking control of the opening Test.

Before Australia changed the face of Test cricket over the last decade, the tempo was slow and deliberate as sides entered into attritional battles to gain the upper hand.

Players like Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist altered the landscape of Test cricket to such an extent that 300 runs in a day is now regarded as par, while it is only three years ago that England piled up 407 in only 79.2 overs on the opening day of the second Test in the 2005 Ashes series at Edgbaston.

But in vastly different conditions at Seddon Park, England's 2008 line-up returned to old-style Test cricket by adding only 199 in 93 overs - 34 of which were maidens - to prevent New Zealand taking a stranglehold on the match.

Resuming the third morning on a perilous 87 for two, still trailing by 383, England blocked and blocked and blocked some more to reduce New Zealand's lead to just 184 by reaching 286 for six by the close.

Even Pietersen, one of the most aggressive players in world cricket, batted within himself and after hitting his third ball from off-spinner Jeetan Patel for six, took a further 91 deliveries before he claimed his next boundary.

Yet despite New Zealand hitting 188 in only 49 overs the previous day, Pietersen insisted his 42 in over three hours at the crease was up there among his best England innings.

To be honest, I think today was one of my better knocks I've played for England, even though I blocked the ball,'' said Pietersen.

I didn't try anything stupid in my whole innings, I've developed into a player who can adjust and, if needs be, play like that.'' Coming from a player who hit a brilliant 158 at the Oval three years ago to secure England's Ashes triumph, successive centuries against Muttiah Muralitharan during the summer of 2006 and a double century against West Indies at Headingley last year, that is some claim.

He may struggle to find much consensus among the Seddon Park crowd, one of whom was prompted to shout Have a go, you mug!'' mid-way through his innings after watching him add only 26 in the two-hour afternoon session.

I was never, ever looking to just defend - I'm always looking for scoring options, I'm always looking for areas to score,'' he insisted.

They're worldclass bowlers and you can't just think you can come in and hit any bowler.'' He stressed: Our guys batted brilliantly, I think we put in a great performance here.

If a few of us had tried to play our normal games and got out for ten or 15 we could have been in a whole lot of t r o u b l e tonight - we were asked to bat the whole day, we were asked to scrap and we certainly scrapped as much as we can.

To lose only four wickets in the day is a fantastic effort.

"Yes, we haven't scored as many runs as everybody would have liked, but it's not that kind of wicket.'' England had understandably started in defensive mode knowing early wickets would give the impetus to New Zealand, but captain Michael Vaughan and Andrew Strauss successfully frustrated them during a 44-run stand spanning 22 overs.

But once they both fell either side of lunch to spin - Vaughan edging Patel behind and Strauss being bowled through the gate from a turning Daniel Vettori delivery - England were unable to break out of that mindset.

Batting on a slow pitch which was showing signs of slightly uneven bounce, the remainder of the day's play was a battle of wills between New Zealand plugging away for wickets and an England side determined not to give theirs away cheaply.

Once again every member of the top six got starts and once again none of them went on to play a major innings, with Pietersen more circumspect than most during his 44-run fifthwicket stand with Ian Bell, who had recovered enough from his hand injury sustained on the opening day to bat.

Bell took 21 overs to reach 25 and overtake Pietersen, who was on ten when he arrived at the crease, but fell to the new ball when Kyle Mills seamed one back into his stumps as he attempted to drive off the front foot.

Pietersen fell 12 overs after tea, pushing forward defensively to Vettori and giving a leading edge back to the bowler to lift New Zealand's hopes of bowling England out within the day.

But Paul Collingwood, who took 33 minutes just to get off the mark, and Tim Ambrose maintained England's resolute defence and survived the remaining 37 overs with another defiant partnership.