Kevin Pieterson – The Ship-Shaper of the English Rampage

A Special Feature on Kevin Pieterson by Karthik Narayan

Wide on the horizon, as anxious eyes and ears watched and listened, the footsteps of a blue-uniform clad cricketer treading on the paths taken by many a youth, a new cricketer bearing the name of Kevin Pieterson on his back walked into the stadium, his bat in his hands like a bludgeon.

This young man carried with him contemporariness of an exemplar, a superstar-ish feature of a plunderer in the mould of a great emperor in the cricket field. And yet, he was yet to be tested in the big stage – thus he had set foot on a world stage where the winner takes all and the loser disappears without a trace! Pieterson was born in Pietermaritzburg, the same place as the legendary Jonty Rhodes in 1980. Having played for Natal in his early days, the case of racism saw him moving to England along with his mother to find safer havens to practise his hard hitting. Now South Africa shall be sore enough to realize what they missed. Perhaps, for South Africa, after a sound thrashing in the test series, adding fuel to the fire might have been Pieterson slamming their bowlers to all corners of the park.

This cricketer knows everything out of the box. Every time he walks in to bat, he portrays the arrogance of a charming entertainer and the confidence of a man on the Trapeze! His batting shows no sign of anything in the cricketing manual and it’s purely out of the box!

From what we have been seeing of this batsman, there has been no sign of the textbook and deft strokes whatsoever; he is seen more as a pulverizer, the man who whacks the ball with the finest of ease. After a stark debut against Zimbabwe at Harare, he has come farther than just being a sweet timer with short swift cameos to a smashing HERO with the flow of a Tsunami. His authority through the leg side was only too evident as he faced his own “Kin”, the South Africans in the country in which he was born. He threatened to take the game away right from ball one, and his first century ironically came against them on 02.02.2005, which also ended up as a famous thrilling tie.

Following his first century in the second ODI, he has had much more to tell in the matches following. In the next match, he did miss out on a big score, but he wasn’t finished. A magnificent innings of 75 at a strike rate that runs into the high 90s proved that he wasn’t for all the money in the world a one match wonder!

And if that was GREAT, what word would one use to describe his next innings in the 5th ODI at East London? A violent and raging battle against time, (England had to win that match to level the series) and with no inhibitions to throw convention out of the window, he played out of his skin to claim the record of England’s fastest ODI century – a hundred (unbeaten) off a mere 69 balls. England did end up losing eventually but Pieterson pounded the protean bowlers to dust as their bowling figures were dented.

Seven Boundaries and Four Sixers clocked at the speed of light and beyond were etched in that innings, by far the best ever England ODI innings in the past year. And his high speed actions almost, well almost clinched a win for his team. That innings showed skill and maturity. With tremendous bat speeds and amazing display of toying with the bowlers, Pieterson has made things easier for England in the ongoing ODI series against South Africa. Now the Proteas tremble when this batsman walks in at Number Five.

With a mere handful of ODIs, Kevin Pieterson already commands respect amongst the bowlers who have bowled to him. Apart from being a batsman who wants to dictate terms, Pieterson rolls his arm around for some gentle off spinners.

The harsh reality of contemporary ODI cricket is that, you are either in or out! Simple as that! Kevin Peter Pieterson has just started on his career, and even though it has been spinning in a lot of fame and the Odd clichés of “traitor”, time is the potent factor, which shall tell the story of this young Pom. A small reading of cricketing history tells us the game is greater than the individual and Pieterson shall very well be smart to settle down before he runs out of ammunition. But while he lasts in his present “avatar”, mighty fireworks shall be seen on the cricketing field!