There are many superlatives which
do justice to Kevin Pietersen's batting when the preening peacock is in good
nick, but the virtue of patience was most impressively apparent in his quite
epic 202 at Lord's.

Pietersen
had gone 20 innings since his last home Test century: it was almost three years
ago that he hit a ton against South Africa at The Oval back in 2008.

There
was no doubt about it: Pietersen found himself very much under pressure ahead
of this, the 2,000th Test match in the history of the game.

KP's
approach to batting has long been maligned, lamented and publicly criticised -
and

How did you come to love the game?
Personal encounters of cricket come in many forms: from fierce backyard
rivalries; to village green heroics; to the deeply professional sport we find
ourselves utterly engrossed in.

Perhaps no sport is so suitably
and gloriously captured and enjoyed on the page, and it is not only Wisden
Almanacks and prematurely published autobiographies of fledgling international
careers which can be pored over.

Cowers has been asked to review
many cricketing titles over the years - including Ian Botham's inauspicious
dabbling into the world of carp fishing - but few have

When five esteemed cricket experts were asked who was India's key player ahead of the series with England, two said Sachin Tendulkar, while three believed it was fast bowler Zaheer Khan.

It may seem surprising, indeed staggering, that the best batsman since the great Sir Donald Bradman is not considered the indispenable part of the Indian machine by the overwhelming majority.

But that would be to neglect the influence held by India's one truly world class paceman, and the man who has proved himself a consummate exponent of swing bowling in English conditions.

On a day of drab batting, dank

You can look at it two ways: England shaded a
typically topsy-turvy series in characteristically mercurial fashion; but
equally, they showed a newfound ruthless edge to clinch a tight challenge.

Sri Lanka are officially (well, according to those ICC
rankings) the fourth best side in pyjama cricket, while England are one place
lower: it was always supposed to be a finely balanced series, and so it proved.

The hosts showed their composure in the final
encounter of a five-match money-spinner which failed on the most part to seize
the public's imagination, but which ended with an engrossing finale

Batsman nicks it behind... Vociferous appeal goes up... White coat
says 'not out'... Decision is referred... Snicko' shouts 'out'... Big Snicko'
graph proves the contact with the outside edge... TV white coat says 'no'... Punters and pundits utterly dumbfounded.

James Anderson takes a wicket, except that he doesn't. That's the wacky world of cricket we love watching.

It was one of those regular occurences in international cricket
when the entire ground, all the players, and every spectator is busy
celebrating or bemoaning a wicket - but the white coats disagree.

It was a farcical situation

Before
Alastair Cook's appointment as England one-day international captain is fully
embraced, there are two trivial - piffling, really - question marks over him
which need to be resolved.

Namely,
those are his ability to be a one-day batsman, and his ability to be a one-day
captain.

The concern
about Cook's elevation has somewhat dissipated with every towering Test ton he
has notched in the last few months, but the feeling remain sthat his promotion is
undeserved.

At best,
most fans are prepared to give Cook a chance to make the role his - and to that
end, all eyes were on The Oval for the

It is easy to read too much into a single result. On Tuesday, England were cocks of the walk after thrashing Sri Lanka at The Oval.

Today they just looked like cocks, as the roles were reversed at Headingley.

So despite the one-sided nature of today's result, Cow Corner is not going to declare the death of English one-day cricket.

But England were shown up in an area where they struggle, even when playing well.

Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara handed them a lesson in scoring quickly without slogging.

Jayawardene won the game with a majestic 144, but took remarkably few risks.

He scored

There are
few men in sport who not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. Kumar
Sangakkara did both with considerable distinction this week, but the
ramifications of his words may see him unfairly treated.

The ever
classy Sangakkara captivated an engrossed audience at Lord's two days ago with
his intelligent, frank and astute assessments of Sri Lankan cricket in the MCC
Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture but, it's fair to say that his views have not
been well received back home.

The former
skipper made his reticence patently clear before agreeing to take up the
prestigious invitation of giving