The Newlands crowd, sections of which booed Kevin Pietersen to the wicket, found the whole thing a hoot. By Lawrence Booth.
Dismissed first ball against Chennai Super Kings and publicly denounced for his subsequent show of dissent by the league's chairman, Lalit Modi, the morning after, Kevin Pietersen was stumped for 11 off a bowler bought at auction for $30,000 - a fraction of Pietersen's $1.55m valuation - as Bangalore Royal Challengers slipped to a second defeat in three days.
The newlands crowd, sections of which booed him to the wicket, found the whole thing a hoot. Pietersen always knew he risked playing the role of pantomime villain in the country of his birth. No amount of tactful references to the "kind, friendly people" of South Africa will persuade locals that they have anything other than a turncoat in their midst. The sign held up by a female spectator reading "KP, you bowl me over" was a lone voice of support.
"Unfortunately There's always going to be a small part of the crowd that does boo," he said. "That's what I had to deal with on my last tour here (in 2004-05). I won't get too many cheers come the end of the year when I play four Tests and seven one-day internationals, so I just deal with it."
For a while Pietersen threatened to keep them quiet. He removed Deccan Chargers' danger man, Adam Gilchrist, in his second over after Gilchrist's 45-ball 71 had rolled back all 37 of his years in glorious fashion, then had the New Zealander Scott Styris caught at long-off in his third.
But when he walked out to bat at 19 for two in reply to 184 for six, prospects looked bleak. A sweep for four off Pragyan Ojha belied a generally fidgety approach and the loss of Robin Uthappa made Bangalore's life even harder. At the 10-over timeout they needed a further 128 but in the first over after the break Pietersen advanced on Ojha, a 22-yearold slow left-armer from Hyderabad, missed and was stumped by yards. Bangalore ended up losing by 24 runs.
The ScoresDeccan Chargers 184 for six in 20 overs (A. Gilchrist 71, R. Sharma 52, K. Pietersen two for 31) bt Bangalore Royal Challengers 160 for eight in 20 overs (R. Dravid 48, V. Kohli 50, R. P. Singh two for 17, S. Styris three for 32).
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2009
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