The Phenomenon

Kevin Pietersen may have retired from playing, but he will remain a part of the game and Test cricket folklore for a long time

- Vaibhav Raghunandan

THE TRUTH IS rarely simple. Kevin Pietersen will tell you that. In a sport reliant on statistics, Pietersen, after all, is best served by memories. Run rates, strike rates, batting averages and centuries are great, but Pietersen’s cricket career is measured by that simple quantity—occasions when the hair on the back of the neck have been raised.

Let’s roll back the tape a bit, to the second day of Pietersen’s debut Test for England. The opponents are Australia, the stage is Lord’s. England have wrapped up Australia for under 200, but are on the verge of a collapse. We don’t know this yet, but it will be a watershed series, where England banish their demons and beat Australia for the first time in 18 years.

The mood is glum. Pietersen has resumed guard on 36 for the first ball of the day, and faces Glenn McGrath. He does what he does best: he puts a smile on everyone’s face. The first ball is heaved to the mid-off boundary. A tennis backhand, more than a straight drive. In the commentator’s box, the venerable Richie Benaud is lost for words. He pauses for a long while, and finally says, “That is a very, very, very good strike,” stating the obvious, a trait not commonly associated with him.

The next shot is more traditional, and yet very Pietersen— a straight drive that clears the ropes. Everyone is smiling now. The camera cuts to Michael Vaughan chuckling in the balcony. Pietersen settles in, and drives McGrath through cover for another boundary. Where other debutants may have been nervous, he was flamboyant. Three deliveries of the second day, and he had a half century.