Kevin Pietersen finds his feet in Twenty20 cricket

Twenty20 / Andrew Hughes / 06 February 2008 / Leave a Comment

Andrew Hughes talks us through misconceptions surrounding KP's Twenty20 performances and tells us why the bet for the next match is to back plenty of sixes

Ever since he entered the international arena, Kevin Pietersen has grabbed attention like no English cricketer since Ian Botham. He is, as the Americans say, pure box office, an entertainer and a sportswriter's dream. Even a post-quiff, post-nuptial Pietersen is more newsworthy than the rest of the England batting order put together.

When he's winning the Ashes or dating a pop star, there is enough material to satisfy the most jaded sports editor's appetite.

But when he isn't amassing centuries and his extra-curricular escapades are curtailed, that Pietersen-sized hole is awfully hard to fill. Tabloids can concentrate on his marriage but broadsheets need to take a higher road to Pietersen overload. Hence the inflation of the non-story of his batting decline (discussed here a few weeks back).

Many pundits are puzzled too that he hasn't thrived in Twenty20 cricket, a medium designed seemingly with Pietersen in mind: gaudy, fast and a showcase for superlative stroke making. At first glance, his current average of 26.50 appears a little disappointing. But first glances rarely tell the whole story. A closer examination reveals that Pietersen is actually steadily finding his feet in Twenty20, as demonstrated by his fluent forty-three in yesterday's First Twenty20 match with New Zealand and his improving average (thirty-six over the last six games). He, like the rest of us, is still coming to terms with what this version of cricket demands.

It should also be remembered that he has been playing in a poor team. England have compressed the traditional period between inventing a game and being overtaken by everyone else in the world to a little under three years, losing eight of their dozen Twenty20 games so far. It is hard to shine in a team that is forever on the back foot. Yet despite this, Pietersen was the best England batsman at the World Championships last autumn and has the best Twenty20 average of all the current squad, bar Owais Shah.

Another misconception has been aired in the press over the last few days. The suggestion is that England's fifty over form is bound to automatically carry over into Twenty20 cricket. No doubt some pundits will be citing England's win on Tuesday as proof of this. They shouldn't get carried away. After all, their excellent limited overs series win against India last summer didn't carry over into the Twenty20 World Championship, where their performance bordered on the inept. Twenty20 cricket is not just an extension of the fifty over game, but a separate game entirely, demanding, if not a different set of players, then certainly different skills from the same players.

In truth, England were helped on Tuesday by the chronic weakness of the New Zealanders. Deprived of the experience and class of Fleming, McMillan, Vincent and Bond, they are relying on big hitters McCullum and Oram, a handful of unproven batsmen and a battery of innocuous seamers. Worst of all, captain Daniel Vettori's knee injury deprives them of one of the best Twenty20 bowlers in the world and a useful middle order batsman. With the second of these matches following on so quickly, it will be hard for them to regain the momentum. If you do think they can level the two match series in Christchurch on Thursday they are on offer at [2.38]. England meanwhile are strong favourites [1.70] to repeat the dose at the AMI Stadium, a venue hosting its first ever Twenty20 match
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Amongst the other markets for this fixture, you can have [25.0] about a tied match (though you should bear in mind that fifty three Twenty20 games so far have only yielded two ties). And if you think the hard hitters like Mascarenhas and Oram will have a field day, you can get [1.4] about there being nine or more sixes in the game.