New Zealand captain McCullum relishes facing Pietersen today

England take positives despite losing first T20 against tourists .


Afp June 26, 2013
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum led from the front with a typically quickfire innings as the Black Caps beat England by five runs to win the first Twenty20. PHOTO: AFP

LONDON: New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum insists he is relishing the prospect of going up against Kevin Pietersen in the second Twenty20 international at The Oval today, saying the ‘game’s better’ when the star batsman is involved.

Pietersen has not played for England since leaving the tour of New Zealand in March with a knee injury that sidelined him from all cricket until last week.

But he returned to action by making an unbeaten 177 for Surrey in their County Championship match away to Yorkshire, an innings featuring 17 fours and seven sixes.

It was a heartening innings for England ahead of next month’s Ashes defence against Australia and Pietersen was specifically named as being available for today’s fixture.



England could have done with some extra batting firepower at The Oval on Tuesday.

They lost the first of two Twenty20s by five runs — exactly the same margin of defeat as England suffered against India in the Champions Trophy final at Edgbaston
on Sunday. McCullum, himself top-scoring with 68 off 48 balls, said he looked forward to facing Pietersen.

“He’s obviously a world-class player,” said McCullum. “And if he comes back into the mix on Thursday [today] then we’ll have to do a little more studying to try and come up with something.

“But the game’s better when Kevin’s back involved so it’ll be great from our point of view too if he does play.”

England satisfied despite loss

One consolation for England was that this defeat was not as painful as the loss to India where, despite needing 20 runs to win off 16 balls with six wickets standing, they still missed out on what would have been their first major One-Day International title.

“It’s not as frustrating as against India,” said Eoin Morgan, one of four survivors in the England team that played Tuesday from Sunday’s side.

“That was an opportunity missed but this was a great effort and we can take a lot of positives.”

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27th, 2013.

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COMMENTS (1)

Fan | 11 years ago | Reply

KP is a rockstar!!

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