Mumbai: England's batting star Kevin Pietersen on Sunday said the difference between the first Test in Ahmedabad, where he flopped, and the second at the Wankhede Stadium here, which was witness to his monumental knock of 186, was his outlook towards defence.
"I wasn't playing well at all in Ahmedabad. I didn't trust my defence as much as I have trusted my defense coming into this Test match. As a batter, if you don't trust your defence as much, you try too many things. You try and force the issue. So I went and did a lot of hard work as I always do and luckily it paid off," said Pietersen who helped England amass 413 in reply to the hosts' 327. I like to keep things simple. I didn't trust my defence, I just didn't go into that fixture with the right defence. I don't think the preparation leading into the Test match, tested my defence enough," he said, adding, "It is just about doing things simple. Doing the basics right, trusting your defence, and I did that in this innings."
Pietersen said his 22nd century that has brought him level with Walter Hammond, Colin Cowdrey, Geoff Boycott and skipper Alastair Cook, would be more cherished if the team wins on Monday.
"It (Century) would mean a lot more if we win tomorrow. With Cookie, going to number 22 (first), which nobody has gone past. He said to me, when he got five to go, you
11:38 AM, Jul 23, 2008
Jaipur: Vineet Saxena, who captained Rajasthan in the absence of regular skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar, has said not having a specialist spinner hurt them in their Ranji Trophy game against Madhya Pradesh, which ended in a draw with Rajasthan securing three points on the basis of getting the first innings lead. "The lack of specialist spinner had really hurt us. If we had got one [specialist spinner] than we could have...
04:30 PM, Jul 21, 2008
