England v South Africa: havoc wreaked by Robin Peterson and Johan Botha raises question of Kevin Pietersen
It had all begun so well. Not just England’s innings but also their playing of spin on a gripping surface, clearly so crucial when they travel to Sri Lanka next week for the ICC World Twenty20.
Left-arm spinner Robin Peterson bowled the first over of the day. That is so usual in Twenty20 now that it has almost become a cliché, but it is often a part-time spinner that does the job – for example young Joe Root with his off-spin for Yorkshire – in order to slip a swift over past slightly tentative batsmen.
Peterson is better than that, though; good enough to open the bowling with two overs and eventually take 3-37 in the one-day international at Trent Bridge last Wednesday, as well as exposing Ian Bell’s surprisingly fallible defensive technique against spin when trapping him lbw .
Therefore it was encouraging that England took nine from Peterson’s first over yesterday, with Alex Hales sweeping him to the untenanted square-leg boundary and then driving him through the covers for another four.
Hales looked in fine fettle, as he had in making 99 in England’s win over West Indies at Nottingham in June. But he was left stranded when Craig Kieswetter declined what appeared a simple single on the leg-side.
Still, at the end of the sixth and final over of the Powerplay, England were 40-1, with six boundaries hit. A target of seven boundaries is often usual in that period (as South Africa achieved in their 40-3). And a score of over 40 is decent. In Sky TV’s fascinating documentary behind the scenes at Worcestershire this season, it was revealed that their Twenty20 target after six overs was to reach 42 runs with a maximum of two wickets lost.
In attempting to make an average total of 166 (and remembering the average Twenty20 score here at Durham is 153) Worcestershire would look to make 28 runs in the next four overs. England made 24, for the loss of two more wickets, so that by the end of the tenth over they were 64-3. It was not bad (South Africa were 61-3).
Then calamity struck. Worcestershire expected 36 runs from the next four overs. England made just 17 in losing another three wickets. Eighty-one for six at the end of 14 overs was the end.
Kieswetter had hit some meaty shots before he was lbw to Johan Botha’s very first ball. The ball from the off-spinner turned, but then it will turn in Sri Lanka.
That the hapless Ravi Bopara failed was little surprise, but Eoin Morgan’s demise, playing on an attempted pull from Botha, was a surprise. The ball before had been of similar length but was slower, and it spun so sharply that it beat wicketkeeper AB de Villiers for two byes. The next was quicker and Morgan was duped.
Like Morgan Jos Buttler is usually a master of invention against spin, evidenced by his fourth-ball reverse-sweep at Botha, but when he danced down the pitch to look to hit Peterson over extra cover he was deceived in the flight and bowled. With Samit Patel brilliantly caught in the deep by Jacques Kallis off Peterson it meant South Africa’s spinners had taken 4-46 from their combined eight overs. It doesn’t bode well.
And, of course, it raised the case of an absent friend (or enemy). Kevin Pietersen was the player of the tournament in the Caribbean last time after all. There he simply scared opponents with the ferocity of his strokeplay. Some time afterwards I spoke to an Australian player about the final in which Pietersen made 47 from 31 balls in England’s seven-wicket victory. Up until then in the tournament it had been the pace of Australia’s Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson that had been doing the scaring. Then Pietersen appeared, pulling dismissively off the front foot and hitting Tait over extra-cover for six. “You could see the colour draining from their cheeks” was the gist of what I was told about the Australian bowlers that day. Against pace or spin in the shorter format (no sinistrophobia there) Pietersen can do that.
But he won’t be in Sri Lanka.
On this evidence, in this format, he is simply irreplaceable.
Then calamity struck. Worcestershire expected 36 runs from the next four overs. England made just 17 in losing another three wickets. Eighty-one for six at the end of 14 overs was the end.
Kieswetter had hit some meaty shots before he was lbw to Johan Botha’s very first ball. The ball from the off-spinner turned, but then it will turn in Sri Lanka.
That the hapless Ravi Bopara failed was little surprise, but Eoin Morgan’s demise, playing on an attempted pull from Botha, was a surprise. The ball before had been of similar length but was slower, and it spun so sharply that it beat wicketkeeper AB de Villiers for two byes. The next was quicker and Morgan was duped.
Like Morgan Jos Buttler is usually a master of invention against spin, evidenced by his fourth-ball reverse-sweep at Botha, but when he danced down the pitch to look to hit Peterson over extra cover he was deceived in the flight and bowled. With Samit Patel brilliantly caught in the deep by Jacques Kallis off Peterson it meant South Africa’s spinners had taken 4-46 from their combined eight overs. It doesn’t bode well.
And, of course, it raised the case of an absent friend (or enemy). Kevin Pietersen was the player of the tournament in the Caribbean last time after all. There he simply scared opponents with the ferocity of his strokeplay. Some time afterwards I spoke to an Australian player about the final in which Pietersen made 47 from 31 balls in England’s seven-wicket victory. Up until then in the tournament it had been the pace of Australia’s Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson that had been doing the scaring. Then Pietersen appeared, pulling dismissively off the front foot and hitting Tait over extra-cover for six. “You could see the colour draining from their cheeks” was the gist of what I was told about the Australian bowlers that day. Against pace or spin in the shorter format (no sinistrophobia there) Pietersen can do that.
But he won’t be in Sri Lanka.
On this evidence, in this format, he is simply irreplaceable.
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