CRICKET/Second Test: Kevin Pietersen won his showdown with another of the world's leading spinners to propel England towards an emphatic and quickfire victory in the second Test against Sri Lanka.
Since walking out at Lord's for his Test debut against Australia last summer, the Hampshire batsman has set out to win his battles with key bowlers from the opposition.
He came out on top during last summer's thrilling battle with Shane Warne, who dismissed him only three times in 10 innings during the Ashes series, and was a spectacular winner of yesterday's battle with prolific off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.
Pietersen hit a magnificent 142 off only 157 balls and dominated Sri Lanka's attack - Murali included - to help England establish a 154-run first-innings lead, despite Muralitharan grabbing six for 86. The brilliance of that performance was underlined further by Sri Lanka slipping to 86 for four by the close of the second day, still trailing by 68 runs, with no other batsman in the match having scored more than 30.
From the moment Pietersen resumed the second day, which began 80 minutes late through overnight rain soaking the outfield, he was simply brilliant and helped himself to centuries in successive Tests.
Resuming on 30 overnight, Pietersen was outstanding and hammered three sixes and 20 fours in his innings and contributed 112 out of England's 157 runs. One of those sixes, a reverse sweep off Murali, drew looks of admiration even from a Sri Lankan team unhappy they had been told to continue the game in damp conditions which made bowling and fielding all the more difficult.
Overnight: Sri Lanka 141. England 138-3.
England First Innings (cont)
K Pietersen lbw b Muralitharan 142
M Hoggard b Vaas 3
P Collingwood c Tharanga b Muralitharan 19
A Flintoff b Malinga 9
G Jones c Samaraweera b Muralitharan 4
L Plunkett c Vandort b Muralitharan 0
S Mahmood not out 0
M Panesar lbw b Malinga 0
Extras (b6 lb13 nb14 pens 5) 38
Total (78.3 overs) ... 295
Fall of wickets: 1-56 2-69 3-125 4-169 5-238 6-290 7-290 8-293 9-294.
Bowling: Vaas 16-6-30-1 Malinga 13.3-2-68-2 Maharoof 11-3-42-0 Muralitharan 25-2-86-6 Kulasekara 13-2-45-0.
Sri Lanka Second Innings
M Vandort not out 30
W Tharanga c G Jones b Hoggard 0
K Sangakkara c Collingwood b Panesar18
D Jayawardene lbw b Hoggard 5
T Samaraweera st G Jones b Panesar 8
T Dilshan not out 21
Extras (lb3 nb1) 4
Total 4 wkts (40 overs) ... 86
Fall of wickets: 1-2 2-38 3-43 4-56.
Bowling: Hoggard-9-4-14-2 Flintoff 7-2-17-0 Plunkett 7-4-10-0 Panesar 13-3-39-2 Mahmood 4-2-3-0.
