Cricket: Pietersen Challenges Bowlers' Brains Trust

They say that even the ad-libs of the great comedians are planned. Every "titter ye not" from Frankie Howerd was part of the script and it took a lot of rehearsal to make it seem so utterly unrehearsed. Watching Kevin Pietersen batting is a bit like that, with his flamingo shot, top-spun while balancing on one leg - a unique stroke, surely with its roots in hockey - or his reverse-hands sweep that deposited the bowling of the great Muttiah Muralitharan into the seething Hollies stand.

It all looks so natural, so instinctively seat-of-the-pants, that one can only imagine the work that must have gone in to perfecting the shots. To some extent we may all get caught up in the sheer exuberance and extrovert character of a Pietersen innings and the nature of his lifestyle but underpinning the ambition is a most diligent cricketer who understands that everything he has is contingent on his success as a batsman, which in turn is contingent on the amount of hard work he puts in.

It is easy to forget that Pietersen, for all his four Test hundreds and superstar average in the 50s, is a relative novice in Test cricket with only 13 matches since he began at the start of last year's Ashes series. Playing against Australia, then Pakistan and India last winter and now Sri Lanka, means that no opposition has yet had the opportunity to go away after a series, think about him and then come back having formulated a strategy. The real test will come second time around, beginning with Pakistan later this summer and then, of course, the Australians.

But what will they find? All the analysis will show that the basics of Pietersen's game are orthodox, as are those of expressionist painters. Flair relies on sound principles: if Pietersen wished to play as Geoff Boycott did it would not be his lack of fundamentals that prevented it. Further study shows that he bats with immense power, as much perhaps as any man playing. But Andrew Flintoff has power too, so there has to be more to it.

What Pietersen possesses, in common with some of the great batsmen, are options. To the modest player each delivery has an answer involving attack or defence. Better players might consider, and be capable of executing, a second alternative as a matter of judgment. But only the exceptional players can recognise a whole series of choices and make a selection based on circumstance, intent, field placing, conditions and the nature of the bowling and then act upon it all in a split second.

So, for example, a length ball from a pace bowler to Pietersen a foot wide of off-stump might be ignored, depending on how "in" he is; defended or pushed for a single; angled backward of point using the pace on the ball (a rare devi- ation for him); belted on the top of the bounce through extra cover; or - this is where he is unique - flipped outrageously through mid-on, the stroke that elevates him above the norm and clinches his genius.

The best bowlers are no mugs. Cricket's grapevine does not have national barriers. Word will get round. Pietersen is providing a new challenge and it has to be met. It starts by taking advantage of nervousness when first he comes in (although that is less apparent than it was). Pace bowlers have tried to outwit him early on by using short balls to get him on the back foot before spearing in a straight full-length delivery, hoping for lbw as habit takes him across his stumps. He has been drawn into insipid pushes at wide-ish deliveries, while spinners might feel that heavy reliance on hand-eye co-ordination, very active wrists and a dominant bottom hand might give them a chance of a miscue or leading edge before he has found his sea legs.

Once he gets to 20, though, the game changes and so must the strategy. He is in now. Modest spinners would do well to be kept out of the way - he treats Muralitharan and Shane Warne contemptuously at times, so what chance would lesser bowlers have? Instead there are several possible approaches.

One involves sheer pace: he hooks as a matter of bravado, and not necessarily under control. He rode his luck against Brett Lee at The Oval last year but succumbed to Shoaib Akhtar's bouncer immediately after completing his 100 in Faisalabad. The second option involves a game of patience, with nagging, persistent, accurate fast-medium directed relentlessly to a good length 18 inches or so outside off-stump - more width than usual - to a field set accordingly: to the off side, a couple of slips (trusting that patience is not yet Pietersen's forte and that he will want to have a go), backward point, extra cover and mid-off, with a scout on the extra-cover boundary (not square) to reduce his best attacking stroke to a single or at worst two; to the on side, a man on the fence backward of square, mid-wicket and the last man short and straight at mid-on in case Pietersen exceeds himself and tries the flamingo from an even wider point.

The worst scenario for a hyperactive child is total boredom.

KP goes nuts

Tests 13

Hundreds 4

Fifties 5

Highest score 158 (v Australia 2005 & v Sri Lanka, 2006)

Fours 137 Sixes 27

Average 50.12

One-day internationals 30

Hundreds 3

Fifties 8

Highest score 116 (v South Africa 2005)

Fours 110 Sixes 33

Average 65.50