Pietersen and Prior to the rescue for England

England A 344 for 8 (Pietersen 147, Prior 81) v Tamil Nadu
Scorecard

After three straight defeats in the one-day series against India A, England A came back strongly on the first day of the four-day match against Tamil Nadu at Chennai. Kevin Pietersen was England's saviour, scoring 147 and adding 182 with Matt Prior, as England closed on 344 for 8.

However, after being put in, England made a nightmare start. Openers Scott Newman and Kadeer Ali both failed to score, and when Michael Lumb followed for 18, three wickets had fallen for only 31 runs.

That was when Pietersen and Prior came together to resurrect the innings. Pietersen scored a hundred in the second international one-day match at Bangalore, but Prior had yet to make an impression. However, the pair took the score along to 115 for 3 at lunch, and they continued in similar vein after the interval, gradually imposing themselves before Prior eventually fell to Somasetty Suresh for a very useful 81.

Pietersen went on reach his well-deserved hundred, with his Nottinghamshire team-mate, Bilal Shafayat, offering support as the bowlers toiled for another breakthrough. Shafayat had reached 41 when he was caught off Ganesh Kumar, while Pietersen had gone on to 147 by the time he was forced to retire hurt.

Gramam Wagg, Simon Jones and Simon Francis all fell cheaply, but James Tredwell and Shaftab Khalid saw the tourists through to the close.