Pietersen's greatest? But what about Sachin?
Kevin Pietersen's 186 in Mumbai has led to much praise and discussion about where it stands in the various judgements of great innings
ESPNcricinfo staff
25-Feb-2013
Kevin Pietersen's 186 in Mumbai has led to much praise and discussion about where it stands in the various judgements of great innings. In the Daily Telegraph, Scyld Berry argues that it's the finest innings played by an Englishmen in India.
It was as if there were two different games on two different pitches. In one, the batsmen groped and missed or edged, especially at Ojha; in the other, Cook played steadily forwards to scotch the spin, while Pietersen scored either a boundary or a single, whichever he pleased, as when Ojha turned a ball from over the wicket across Pietersen, who waved it over extra cover with his wand.
Meanwhile, a batsman not having such a good time of is Sachin Tendulkar with much debate about his future. Dileep Premachandran joins the discussion in the Independent.
As worrying as the mounting list of failures has been the manner of them. New Zealand's pace trio of Doug Bracewell, Tim Southee and Trent Boult all had him bowled in the first series of the season, and Panesar repeated the dose in this game. There have been three leg-befores as well.
Back in the Daily Telegraph, Simon Hughes also looks at Tendulkar's diminishing returns and how Monty Panesar dominated him in Mumbai.
Like Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen earlier, Panesar was immense, wheeling away probingly, penetratively, passionately, from the second over. He was markedly more consistent than in the first innings, darting his deliveries incessantly onto a full length around off stump. He maintained his pace and energy superbly. He was fizzing the ball through at close to 60mph, around the legendary Derek Underwood's pace, with no loss of accuracy or potency. This was a good 5mph quicker than Pragyan Ohja with equal degrees of spin.