Pietersen rips up form book

Following Kevin Pietersen’s match-winning 90 yesterday, which handed England a consolation win over the West Indies, Simon Wilde in the Sunday Times says form matters not-a-jot for him:

When he has got his eye in, and there is a match to win on a good batting pitch, the form book gets shredded along with the bowling. Tell-tale averages, hard-won reputations, both are scattered to the winds. He knows that once the ground work is done, he can score at around two runs per ball against the seamers.

In the same paper Wilde interviews Ian Bell; as Iain Duncan-Smith, the former Conservative leader once said, “never underestimate the determination of a quiet man”. Pleasingly for England, Bell is rather more popular and a far greater success than Duncan-Smith.”He has left the chrysalis and started to spread the most handsome butterfly wings”:

Bell still barely looks old enough to cross a road unsupervised, let alone the boundary rope of an international arena, but he has, at 24, assumed a stature worthy of the predictions made for him by many good judges while he was still in his teens. Don’t bet against him being England’s leading run scorer in the Ashes this winter.

Over at the Daily Mail, Steve Harmison says the management didn’t reveal their reasons for dropping him in England’s final Champions Trophy match yesterday against the West Indies. He does, however, insist he will be ready to roll come the Ashes:

I know things haven’t quite worked out as I planned here in India at the ICC Trophy. I don’t quite know why I was dropped yesterday because the management didn’t tell me, but I can only assume it was because I didn’t bowl particularly well in the first two games. I feel a little hard done by because on both occasions we were defending a low score, but it’s not the end of the world.

What I do know is that everything’s going well in the nets, my fitness is good and Kevin Shine, the bowling coach, is very happy with my progress. I know how I am best of all, both physically and mentally, and I can categorically state that my confidence is good and I expect fully to be ready, fast and taking wickets in the Ashes series.