London, July 13 (Inditop.com) The English media lavished praise on the team’s tailenders for showing resilience in snatching a draw in the first Test against Australia, and aimed their brickbats at star batsman Kevin Pietersen.
The last pair of James Anderson and Monty Panesar were praised for their gritty 40-minute stay at Sophia Gardens during a 69-ball stand that took England to safety Sunday.
“England tasted one of those glorious dramatic draw yesterday that only Test cricket at the highest level of intensity can deliver,” The Times said.
Paul Collingwood’s fighting innings of 74 which spanned nearly six hours was also hailed.
“Collingwood, unshaven, sunburnt and mired in sweat and dust, batted for 17 minutes shy of six hours, 245 balls of sheer bloody-mindedness and self-restraint to take England to the brink of safety,” Mike Atherton, a former England captain, wrote in The Times.
But it was Pietersen and other top-order batsmen who faced the ire of the media.
Pietersen made eight in the second innings and 69 in the first during which he was dismissed while playing a sweep shot.
“The rest of the England batting, as it had been for most of the match, was at times pitiful in its application or ability to absorb fundamental lessons,” The Guardian said.
“Pietersen has run into real trouble in this Test. Ritual defiance will not protect him from the suspicion that his lone wolf tendencies are now hurting his team,” the newspaper said.
The Daily Telegraph said: “If the fool would persist in his (Pietersen) folly, he would become wise”.
“For Australian cricketers tradition is an ever-replenishing resource, like water. To an interloper like Kevin Pietersen, whose overriding ambition is to be rich and famous, the word may have no resonance at all. There is a problem here. Huge. Massive,” Michael Henderson wrote in Daily Telegraph.
rounak