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 hasn’t 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 the South Africa-born shotmaker returned to action in spectacular style 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.
McCullum, no slouch with the bat himself as he proved in top-scoring Tuesday with 68 off 48 balls, said he looked forward to facing Pietersen.
“He’s obviously a world-class player and if he comes back into the mix on Thursday (today) then we’ll have to do a little more studying tomorrow 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.”
Pietersen, now with Oval-based Surrey, announced himself to the world by making the first of his 22 Test hundreds, a stunning 158 that secured the Ashes for England in 2005, at the south London venue.
AFP
