Melbourne: Kevin Pietersen played a cautious out-of-character innings and lived a charmed life as English wickets clattered around him on an attritional opening day of the dead-rubber fourth Ashes Test against Australia Thursday.
Pietersen, under fire for his unproductive batting in England's troubled series, curbed his natural attacking instincts to keep the pressing Australians at bay before a crowd of 91,092, the highest single-day attendance for any Test match.
Pietersen went to stumps unbeaten on a fighting 67 off 152 balls, with Tim Bresnan not out one in England's 226 for six. In doing so Pietersen passed Geoff Boycott as the fourth all-time England run-getter.
The subdued Pietersen had some luck along the way and denied the impressive Ryan Harris both times, as England were pinned down by a disciplined Australian bowling attack on a slow scoring day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Pietersen, who took 12 balls to get off the mark, had some good fortune on six when he was caught by fielding substitute Nathan Coulter-Nile at deep backward square leg off Harris.
But Coulter-Nile was unable to stay within the field of play in taking the catch, staggering over the boundary marker, and Pietersen was awarded a six instead.
He had a second "life" on 41 when George Bailey had two goes in a fumbling attempt at a catch off Harris at mid-wicket.
Pietersen, who thrills and frustrates in equal measure with his prodigious batting skills, anchored the tourists' innings.
Harris, who was superb leading the Australian attack, ended a threatening 67-run partnership when he got Ian Bell to nick an outswinger to Brad Haddin for 27 in the 73rd over.
Bell's obdurate innings came off 98 balls in just over two hours, with just one four.
During his innings Bell joined Michael Clarke in passing 1,000 runs for the calendar year.
Perth Test centurion Ben Stokes fell late in the day when he edged to Shane Watson at slip off Mitchell Johnson for 14. He he was followed by Jonny Bairstow, replacing Matt Prior but bowled by a Johnson snorter for 10.
The Australians' tight bowling line restricted the English scoring and extracted the wickets of opener Michael Carberry and Joe Root in the middle session.
The 1932-33 Ashes saw the end of ‘Bodyline’. Designed primarily as measure to take down Australian star Don Bradman, it consisted largely of fast, aggressive bowling aimed to hurt rather than deceive the batsman.
In 1971, England’s John Snow was warned for short-pitched bowling after striking Terry Jenner on the head. The crowd didn’t like it either and Snow was grabbed by a spectator and bottles and cans were thrown at him.The teams coming in to play on the final day of the test found the Headingley stadium vandalised overnight by protesters campaigning for the release of convicted robber George Davis. Captains Tony Grieg and Ian Chappell both reluctantly agreed the game could not continue. Honouring a £20 bet, a Merchant Navy cook, Michael Angelow, he stripped off, sprinted to the crease and jumped over the wickets during the 1975 Ashes test at Lord's.In 1977, Kerry Packer, along with Toni Greig had dropped a veritable atom bomb on the cricketing world and the Ashes that was played in the immediate aftermath of the Kerry Packer revolution was lacking in lustre since it had been deprived of many of its stalwarts including the Chappell brothers, Lillee, etc. As a result, Bob Simpson came out of retirement to lead Australia.During the 1979 Ashes, Dennis Lillee came out to bat sporting an aluminium bat and was adamant that he would play on despite the umpires insisting he change his chosen blade. It was not until his captain Greg Chappell intervened that Lillee conceded—by tossing his old bat to the floor in disgust.In the famous 1981 Ashes test, bookmakers put the odds of a home victory at 500/1. Australian bowler Dennis Lillee and wicketkeeper Rod Marsh promptly put a small wager on just that happening - before Ian Botham and Bob Willis saw England to victory to land the former pair a £7,500 jackpot.Ricky Ponting’s frustration at England’s bowlers continually taking breaks from the field of play during the 2005 series boiled over at Nottingham when he was run out by substitute fielder Gary Pratt. Ponting, stormed from the pitch pointing and mouthing at the England balcony and ended up being fined 75per cent of his match fee as a result. DRS has come under the scanner after Jonathan Trott was wrongly declared out. England coach Andy Flower demanded clarification from the ICC of the rules after Jonathan Trott was given out first ball by the third umpire when it was discovered one of the HotSpot cameras was not working for the replays.Australia was left fuming as England's Stuart Broad enjoyed a massive slice of luck on the third day of the first Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.Despite knowing he nicked the ball, Broad continued batting. This has angered the cricketing community worldwide.
No comments:
Post a Comment