Our treatment of KP

[Spark]

Spark to dig up his stupid dismissal thread

There's been a few potential entries to that from both series, hey? Rogers missing that full toss, Khawaja missing the straight ball at Durham, some of the planks to cover, moving across and getting bowled leg stump...

 

[hendrix]

Well he's still playing so it has to be speculation and there's no doubt that Clarke is a world class player right now. KP isn't

why can't it just be that KP's a world class player who's not in the best of form and probably at the end of his career in a team under huge pressure coming up against an excellent bowling attack that's giving him no quarter?

I mean 2 years ago I could say that KP was world class and that Clarke probably wasn't.

 

[Tangles]

Great to watch when he's on but has a high percentage of soft dismissals. He's like Mark Waugh. You have to take the good with the bad.

 

[Jono]

why can't it just be that KP's a world class player who's not in the best of form and probably at the end of his career in a team under huge pressure coming up against an excellent bowling attack that's giving him no quarter?

I mean 2 years ago I could say that KP was world class and that Clarke probably wasn't.

indeed

 

[91Jmay]

There's been a few potential entries to that from both series, hey? Rogers missing that full toss, Khawaja missing the straight ball at Durham, some of the planks to cover, moving across and getting bowled leg stump...

Bairstow getting out to a Steve Smith full toss was rather terrible at Lords

 

[Spark]

Bairstow getting out to a Steve Smith full toss was rather terrible at Lords

Oh yes, and Bell at Adelaide.

 

[Spikey]

I believe I mounted a defence for that Steve Smith full toss v Bairstow

 

[91Jmay]

Was the defence that the batsmen was Bairstow?

 

[Spikey]

It was along the lines of the ball dipped late and took away the room for Bairstow to get under it. Turned into a handy delivery

 

[King Pietersen]

I'm as big a fan of Pietersen as anyone, but that dismissal to Mitchell Johnson yesterday was absolutely miserable. The only shot/s we saw all day worse than that came from Piers Morgan.

 

[Woodster]

I'm as big a fan of Pietersen as anyone, but that dismissal to Mitchell Johnson yesterday was absolutely miserable. The only shot/s we saw all day worse than that came from Piers Morgan.

And that's why there has always been so much frustration around KP, he is a thoughtful cricketer for much of the time, but when he does something like that that was completely unnecessary and not really giving himself a chance of scoring more runs yesterday, then you can't help but feel short-changed from him.

He is positive and generally scores quickly, the shot yesterday had very little chance of success. At times I'm torn between accepting the fact that he will get out in some crazy and very soft ways as that's how he plays and should some of those shots come off I'd be raving about them, and then I think it's not enough to say that's how he plays thus relinquishing him of any responsibility to bat to the situation and at times play a different way. He has been a top player over the years and is now 33 years old, so if he is as good as a lot of us say he is then he should have the skill and foresight to modify his game when necessary and not give it away with an outrageously attempted reverse, inside out, uppercutted pulled drive!

Some of the innings he has played can be replicated by few batsmen in world cricket and he has maintained a very decent average throughout his career. I think the fact we all still expect more shows how highly we think of him.

 

[benchmark00]

Would have thought one of the best batsmen in the world and some say the best batsmen of his generation would be able to hit that middleground of plodding and downright stupidly aggressive.

And no way you can say Broad is the tail.

There's only been one person to say that and it's such a stupid thing to say it's not worth repeating. Would be like saying that 'some people think fully grown wild alligators make ideal pets for young children' just because Riggins said it once.

 

[Tangles]

He is all about ego batting. He ground out a 50 when it was needed and still copped flak. His ego asserted itself and he tried to mow the fastest bowler to the fence.

 

[Jono]

There's only been one person to say that and it's such a stupid thing to say it's not worth repeating. Would be like saying that 'some people think fully grown wild alligators make ideal pets for young children' just because Riggins said it once.

That was my point. I was calling out Furball re: KP's pooness.

Now jog on and bring me back a souvenir from Fiji. Preferably something like this:

 

[Burgey]

You should be thanking god for him this game, because he's the only batsman from the England line up who's made runs both digs. Without him the game would be over already.

Fmd the bloke has been playing tests for nigh on a decade. Yeah he's frustrating because he holes out or plays a dumb shot, but that's the price you buy him at. Everyone knows he has that in him. He isn't going to change.

I can't say any of his dumb dismissals have cost England a test in this series iirc. Maybe get another player or two who can tick the score over at more than 1.5 per over and his head wouldn't be as scrambled as it seems to be ATM.

Is he England's leading run scorer this series, btw?

 

[GuyFromLancs]

KP finally turns up, but England are so **** the overall scorecard is basically unaltered.

 

[Riggins]

You should be thanking god for him this game, because he's the only batsman from the England line up who's made runs both digs. Without him the game would be over already.

Fmd the bloke has been playing tests for nigh on a decade. Yeah he's frustrating because he holes out or plays a dumb shot, but that's the price you buy him at. Everyone knows he has that in him. He isn't going to change.

I can't say any of his dumb dismissals have cost England a test in this series iirc. Maybe get another player or two who can tick the score over at more than 1.5 per over and his head wouldn't be as scrambled as it seems to be ATM.

Is he England's leading run scorer this series, btw?

agree with this. has been for 8 (?) years and still the guy you really worry about when he walks out to the crease, regardless of match situation or his form.

 

[theegyptian]

You should be thanking god for him this game, because he's the only batsman from the England line up who's made runs both digs. Without him the game would be over already.

Fmd the bloke has been playing tests for nigh on a decade. Yeah he's frustrating because he holes out or plays a dumb shot, but that's the price you buy him at. Everyone knows he has that in him. He isn't going to change.

I can't say any of his dumb dismissals have cost England a test in this series iirc. Maybe get another player or two who can tick the score over at more than 1.5 per over and his head wouldn't be as scrambled as it seems to be ATM.

Is he England's leading run scorer this series, btw?

yes we should thank him for turning up when the series is over. Pietersen is no more or less culpable than Bell, Cook or Trott. Carberry and Root are excused to a degree as they are inexperienced and don't have the career records of the other 4.

As a group the 4 haven't produced what they were required to do. Trott has already gone and won't play again. Whatever KP, Bell and Cook have or haven't done in this series, England can't really afford to lose another in the next year or so because to expose too many inexperienced and inferior players would really affect the strength of the team.

That in a sense is problem as they have no competition for their spot - however bad the shots they play are. KP, Bell and Cook are by some way England's best batsmen. I wouldn't say KP is any more important than Cook.

 

[Jassy]

Haha let's pick on the guy who scores 120 runs in the match! Jeez, granted he's had a pretty poor series but fair's fair the guy is amazing. Seriously, he should probably fill his boots by playing Bangladesh or make scores against Pakistan on dead wickets to improve his away average...or maybe he should just start averaging in the 30s every time he plays away from home. Maybe then he'll get his due...certainly works for other so-called great batsmen.

 

[Briony]

The combination of abysmal umpiring decisions and freak injuries lead to what can be best described as a string of hollow victories that are now being rightfully corrected.

Anyway. We're talking about one particular batsmen. Nothing more. He just isn't that good and its a reflection of an English batting line up that is made up of above average players rather than any real stars that has allowed KP to become overrated

Agree to a large extent. He's unquestionably a good batsman but surely not the best of his generation, nor necessarily the most talented. Every so often he tees off and looks great maybe taking an attack a part in the process. That's something a lot of batsmen can do if given the occasional licence. There's a reason why it doesn't happen a lot though because he needs the stars to align for this to happen. There have been many examples of current batsmen taking attacks apart when the cards fall into place too. He's played a few match-winning innings but in reality probably no more than the best batsmen of his generation. He's good but seems to get overrated as something super special.