Five of the best knocks of Kevin Pietersen

3. 100* vs South Africa (England in South Africa, East London, 2005)

Kevin Pietersen 100* vs South Africa

This was a game both teams could have won, and it went down to the wire all the way. South Africa posted 311, thanks to captain Graeme Smith’s brilliant ton and Justin Kemp’s onslaught towards the end. England had a slow start and could only put up 117/3 in 27 overs; Pietersen walked in with Vaughan at the other end. Vaughan departed some 10 overs later with a slowly made 70, which had just 2 boundaries. England needed more than 130 runs to win with just about 15 overs left, which was around the same time Pietersen started attacking. Even though he was running out of partners at the other end, he continued scoring at a brisk rate.

He hit 7 fours and 4 sixes in the hundred that came off just 69 deliveries, but he could only manage to bring his team within 7 runs of the Proteas’ target. Towards the end, the required rate had climbed to above 10, and even though Giles hit some boundaries, Pietersen still had a daunting task at hand. With just 3 wickets remaining, England needed 50 from 4 overs. Pietersen hit Jacques Kallis for a four and a six in the over that followed, but Kabir Ali at the other end could not come up with the same stuff in the subsequent overs and was dismissed in the 1st ball of the 50th over. England still needed 22 off 5.

Pietersen ran 2 the next ball and hit a four the ball after that. 16 required off the last 3. That is when he only managed a single. It was too late by the time he was given the strike back to face the last ball. Even a six off the last ball could not gift them the 14 runs that were required. England could have easily won had Pietersen got better support at the other end or had they maintained a better scoring rate early on.