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South Africa-born Kevin Pietersen is making waves for himself with his performances in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge. On Friday, he scored his second consecutive century for the Dolphins as he led them to a nine-wicket victory over the Knights with 20 balls to spare.
On Wednesday, Pietersen scored his highest T20 score to help the Dolphins to a one-run victory over the Lions. He had scored 115 off 66 balls, with his century coming off 63 balls. However, in the match against the Knights, Pietersen reached his 100 in just 45 balls, his fastest in T20s.
The Knights had put up a competitive score of 167/4 in their 20 overs powered by a century from Theunis de Bruyn. Kyle Abbott picked up two wickets for the Dolphins, with one of them being the Knights’ centurion.
In reply, the Dolphins lost only one wicket in their chase of the total. Opening batsman Cameron Delport scored a quickfire 34 off 14 balls and gave momentum to the chase before he fell to Ryan McLaren.
A 135-run stand between Pietersen and Dolphins’ captain Morne van Wyk was enough to carry the Dolphins over the finish line. Pietersen scored most of the runs as van Wyk played the anchor role which allowed the English batsman to free his arms.
76 of Pietersen's 100 runs came via boundaries as he hit nine fours and seven sixes in his innings. This was his third T20 century in the 133 matches he has played in the shortest format.
Dolphins are the only team in the Ram Slam T20 to have won all of their games so far. With three wins out of three, they have a comfortable lead at the top of the six-team table. In their first game against Titans, David Miller was the hero for the Dolphins as he scored a 32-ball 62 to help his team win by 6 runs.
Pietersen has been a regular in many of the T20 leagues around the world. He has played in the Indian Premier League, Big Bash League, Caribbean Premier League, and now the Ram Slam T20 Challenge.
The 35-year-old has a great record in Twenty20 cricket as he has scored 3776 runs in 133 matches at an average of 34.64 having a strike rate of 134.18. His batting average is a very healthy one in the T20 format and might be a factor in helping him play for the Three Lions again.
Before the start of the 2014 T20 World Cup, Pietersen was picked in the 30-man provisional squad for the World Cup, although he was not chosen in the final 15 for the tournament. The 2016 World Cup is scheduled to be held in India during the months of February and March.
It will be interesting to see whether Pietersen makes the cut this time around, considering he continues batting like he is doing at present. The Dolphins’ next game is against the Warriors on Sunday. The English batsman might look to make it three in a row.
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