Pietersen puts England in control
Pietersen puts England in control
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Friday, 26, May 2006 07:38
A towering century from Kevin Pietersen helped put England firmly in control of the second Test at Edgbaston.
Sri Lanka have scored 141 and 86-4 in reply to England’s 295, which was dominated by the South African-born batsman.
The touring side need 68 runs to force England to bat again.
Pietersen’s 142 made him the first player since Graham Gooch in 1990 to hit three successive centuries in home innings.
The highlight was a reverse sweep for six, in the same over as he was finally trapped lbw by Muttiah Muralitharan, who finished with figures of 6-86.
His score, which accounted for just under half of England’s total of 295, hid a number of failures from other England batsmen.
Marcus Trescothick, Andrew Strauss and Alistair Cook all failed to build on promising starts, and the last five wickets fell for just five runs as the lower order collapsed.
As the wicket seemed to deteriorate and the Sri Lankan bowlers started to find some swing, Andrew Flintoff made just nine before he was clean-bowled by Lasith Malinga.
England’s bowlers were not as dominant as on the first day, but did enough to make it a possibility that England will not have to bat again.
Monty Panesar and Matthew Hoggard took two wickets apiece, with Panesar particularly impressive.
His best piece of bowling saw Thilan Samaraweera comprehensively stumped for eight after he was drawn to a ball which turned sharply from a line outside off stump.
Hoggard had earlier taken the key wicket of Mahela Jayawardene when he trapped the Sri Lankan captain lbw for just five runs.
But England’s effort was undermined by lapses in the field, as Geraint Jones and Panesar dropped catches.