Alviro Petersen, a right-hand opening batsman who hailed from the Eastern Cape, made his professional debut up country in 2001. He represented the Northerns franchise and soon represented South Africa A. With a cool head and a stoic, self-contained batting style, Petersen is primarily a leg-side player although he can bring out the perfect cover drive at will.

In 2006, he made the step up to the national side, featuring in the home one-dayers against Zimbabwe. A fine 80 on his second appearance was overshadowed by a savage Mark Boucher century, and he did not don the South Africa colours again untill the ODIs during the 2008 Bangladesh tour.

He had a quiet series, making a sedate 24 in his only chance to bat. He stayed on the fringes of Test selection until the tour of India in 2009-10, when an injury to Mark Boucher gave rise to a vacancy in the line-up. Petersen opened at the intimidating Eden Gardens and celebrated the occasion with a century - only the third South African to make a hundred on Test debut. After nine Tests, with three half-centuries to his name - one each in West Indies, United Arab Emirates and at home, Petersen was dropped. He averaged 33.65 at the time and, although he had not lit up the world, he also hadn't darkened it but Jacques Rudolph's sheer weight of runs pushed Petersen out.

Petersen was relegated back to the A side and led them in a tour match against Australia in Potchefstroom. On a green pitch with plenty of uneven bounce, he scored a calculated century against a Test attack. After Rudolph's unsuccessful Test return at opener, the South Africa selectors decided to go back to Petersen, who had scored two more first-class hundreds in the interim.

On his comeback, in the New Year's Test against Sri Lanka, exactly a year after he was dropped, Petersen scored a century to show that he belonged. A milestone followed in each of the next two series he played, both times coming when questions arose about Petersen's presence in the starting XI. His 156 in Wellington against New Zealand came after two matches in which he made little impact while his 182 against England at Headingley turned around a tour that began with 42 runs in four innings, including a duck in the first Test at the Oval.
Firdose Moonda