A second death-overs meltdown in two games let Pakistan get close, but nerves were finally held and South Africa sealed a two-run win and secure a 2-1 series lead

The Bulletin by Osman Samiuddin02-Nov-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Hashim Amla made his fifth ODI century of the year•AFP

They fell apart again at the death but ultimately a hundred from Hashim Amla and four wickets from Morne Morkel were just about enough to sneak South Africa home in the third ODI in Dubai. A second death-overs meltdown in two games let Pakistan come within two runs, but a 2-1 series lead was secured.South Africa were exceptional for 42 overs in defending 229. Pakistan had just lost Abdul Razzaq, they needed 76 on a sluggish, boundary-shy surface: game over. But Morkel, Rusty Theron and Lonwabo Tsotsobe lost their minds, nerves, lengths and lines. Fielders began to drop catches as Wahab Riaz, of all batsmen, smashed an 11-ball 21 and, with Fawad Alam, pillaged 56 runs in the Powerplay. Ultimately, despite a panic-stricken last over from Theron, Pakistan just didn’t have enough batsmen. Alam remained unbeaten on 59, valiant but not deal-sealing.Before that, Morkel and Tsotsobe had opened with sterling spells. The visitors have made light of Dale Steyn’s absence, mainly because Tsotsobe has had a fine series. He is uncomplicated, using the natural left-arm angle well and has subtle changes in pace. If he hasn’t bowled an outstanding spell that will stick in the mind, neither has he bowled a poor one. Today was no different.Having Morkel at the other end, bowling with unspeaking meanness, helps. Morkel gave nothing away for long, not on width, not on length; both the pace and bounce added to an unceasing atmosphere. One over to Younis Khan was particularly good, five dot balls which left him nowhere to go but out, and he was, off the last ball.The first ten overs ceded 23 and one boundary. With Pakistan not going anywhere, the fielding took over. In any case Imran Farhat was as lively as a library and as awake as a morgue to scoring opportunities. The arrival of Asad Shafiq got things moving but so tightly did South Africa police the field that a run-out looked inevitable. Eventually it came breaking a labored but vital 85-run stand. Soon after, a cramping Shafiq went the same way. Morkel returned, just as mean, and dismissed Shahid Afridi. He set the tone for Razzaq, bowling short or shortish, and giving him nothing remotely full and that should have been that.

Smart Stats

• Hashim Amla averages 82.16 at a strike rate of 103.13 in ODIs in 2010, with five centuries and three fifties in 13 innings.

• Amla scored 52.19% of South Africa’s total, which is the fifth-highest in all ODIs for them. The highest is Gary Kirsten’s unbeaten 188 out of 321 (58.56%) against UAE in the 1996 World Cup. The others are Herschelle Gibbs (59 out of 101 against Pakistan), Gibbs again (118 out of 211 against England); and Dave Callaghan (169 out of 314 against New Zealand).

• This was Jacques Kallis’ first ODI duck in more than three years – the last time he scored one was in October 2007 against Pakistan in Lahore, 42 innings ago.

• For Younis Khan, on the other hand, this was his sixth duck in his last 43 innings.

But if nothing else, Amla’s fifth hundred of the year, a masterful knock deserved the win. But for him South Africa would’ve been nowhere and we would’ve been lauding a match-winning spell from Shoaib Akhtar.From the start, there were two pitches, one for Amla and another, sluggish one, for the rest. He hit nine out of his side’s total 12 boundaries. Two in the first over solidified the impression that he has batted in one unbroken stretch since the first ODI. Where others couldn’t time it, he glided along, utilizing the modern batsman’s get-out clause – a dab to third man – liberally.Occasionally he improvised, but mostly he just stayed cool. That helped, given the outrageous decision that sent back AB de Villiers. An important partnership had been constructed when in Afridi’s first over, TV umpire Zameer Haider chose to give de Villiers out stumped when he was distinctly in. Others gave Amla some support but it was a one-man job.A brace of boundaries paved the way for a hassle-free fifty just before the halfway mark. Then he disappeared, quietly picking off runs here and there. He emerged once on 78, when Shafiq dropped a sharp chance at cover, and again when cutting Saeed Ajmal twice to move into the 90s.A dab to third man – what else? – brought up the hundred just before the batting Powerplay became mandatory. He then found the odd boundary, a classy drive past mid-off and a rare, ungainly pull, but most importantly he stayed unbeaten till the end, not sweating at all.Shoaib’s work thus took a back seat. Amid standard turmoil this year, Shoaib has quietly managed as impressive a comeback as any of his previous ones. He still has the pace, but the shortened run-up and seemingly permanent limp, reduces the visual a little. The smarts are very much intact.He stifled South Africa at the start, rolling in casually and mixing up some solid length bowling with excellent changes of pace; no less a man than Jacques Kallis, returning for Robin Peterson, was deceived by one. Colin Ingram could only pop another slower one back soon after.This was the 11th ODI in a row Shoaib has played since his return earlier this year for the Asia Cup , the longest, unbroken stretch he has had since 2002 (joint-second longest ever in his career). Any questions over his fitness were forgotten in later spells. He gave one run in two overs during the middle, even making the set-as-cement Amla jump around. He then came back to rattle and shake Johan Botha, only a poor last over to regret. Eleven came off that, important in the big picture.

Ricky Ponting rates himself “a good chance” to play with his broken little finger on Boxing Day, but won’t be too proud to stand down if he’s not fit

Peter English at the WACA19-Dec-2010Ricky Ponting rates himself “a good chance” to play with his broken little finger on Boxing Day, but won’t be too proud to stand down if he’s not fit. Ponting has learned from last year, when he went into the biggest game of the summer with a serious elbow tendon problem, and expects to wait until the morning of the fourth Test to decide whether he can lead.The injury ensures another bumpy lead-up for Australia and means Michael Clarke will be on standby for his first Test as captain. Greg Chappell, the selector, said yesterday Clarke, the current deputy, was not ready for the top job but changed tack today.Ponting, who will not pick up a bat until later in the week, did not field on the final morning as Australia raced to a 267-run victory that levelled the series at 1-1. “I have to have treatment and look after it for a few days and rest it,” he said. “I think I have a really good chance of playing, it is only a small fracture. It is a bit sore and angry at the moment, but I’ll be right.”He suffered the break when he spilled the edge of Jonathan Trott at second slip on the third afternoon, with the rebound popping up to Brad Haddin. X-rays last night showed a small crack and he spent the morning of his 36th birthday in the dressing room to protect the injury. He walked out after the victory had been secured to congratulate his team-mates while keeping his left hand out of everyone’s way.Ponting was in a similar fitness race this time last year as he battled to be ready for the start of the series against Pakistan. His right elbow had been hit by a Kemar Roach short ball at the WACA, and the problem disrupted his batting for the rest of the summer.He was determined to play on despite the discomfort, but this time he will consider a different approach if the injury hasn’t healed. “I honestly think with it being a little finger on my left hand, I don’t think it’s as significant as being the top elbow last year,” he said”I’m not going to be silly and put myself ahead of the team. If I don’t think I can function well, I won’t play. If I feel like I can function and play somewhere near – I won’t say how I’ve been playing, better than I have been playing – then I will play the game.”Ponting not only has a hurt finger, but he also hasn’t been in form with the bat, scoring 83 runs in six innings in this series, and averaging 38.95 in 24 Tests since the start of last year. The lack of output has resulted in increased pressure on his leadership, although that has eased with the strength of this victory.Clarke, 29, has also struggled for runs and been facing scrutiny as the captain in waiting. Chappell attempted to back-track today after telling Channel 9 yesterday that nobody was in the right frame of mind to step into the captaincy. The comments came before Ponting was hurt.”In that discussion I was being very careful not to make suggestions against Ricky and I didn’t speak clearly to get that message across,” Chappell told the ABC. “Michael is our next captain, whenever that might be. We’re very happy, he’s done the job before, and we have no doubt he’s ready for it.”What I was trying to say was that when the handover comes we’d love him to be in peak form. I’m not trying to suggest there was a problem there.”Yesterday Chappell said: “If we’re going to replace Ricky, we’ve got to make sure we’ve got someone that we’re confident has the right frame of mind who can take over and do a good job,” Chappell said. “And I don’t know that we’ve got somebody that we feel we want to rush Ricky Ponting out the door at this moment. There is nobody absolutely ready for it. I don’t think there are too many other players I’d want to put that pressure on.”Chappell said today that Ponting will be given time to turn around his batting form, just like Michael Hussey was at the start of this series. “In the nets he’s batting well,” Chappell said. “Perhaps the pressure of this series, he built it up as a very important series, perhaps he hasn’t had the mental freedom to bat. Hopefully the win here might give him the freedom in Melbourne.”

Just when it looked like Imran Farhat’s century was going to take the game away from them, PIA’s Aizaz Cheema and Kamran Sajid sparked an HBL middle-order collapse that left the game finely poised at the end of the second day

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jan-2011ScorecardImran Farhat laid a solid foundation for HBL with his 109•Getty Images

The tea break came to Pakistan International Airlines’ rescue on the second day at the National Stadium in Karachi. Just when it looked like Imran Farhat’s century was going to take the game away from them, left-arm seamer Aizaz Cheema and their captain Kamran Sajid sparked a middle-order collapse that saw Habib Bank Limited lose six wickets for 28 runs in the last session and left the game finely poised at the end of the day.HBL still managed build a lead of 52 thanks to a rearguard action by fast bowler Fahad Masood, but PIA will hope they can knock off the two remaining wickets tomorrow and then improve on their first-innings batting performance to set HBL a decent total.At the tea break, HBL were cruising. Farhat and his captain Hasan Raza had put together 104 for the third wicket and they were already within 14 runs of PIA’s total with eight wickets still remaining. It came down to Cheema, who has led PIA’s bowling attack almost single-handedly at times this season, having taken more than twice the number of wickets any of the other bowlers have, to make the breakthroughHe got one to nip back in sharply from outside off to Raza, in the first over after tea, and had him out lbw for 38. That suddenly opened the floodgates for HBL. Sajid, who had only bowled one three-over spell in each of the first two sessions, brought himself back in the attack and struck in his third over, bowling Aftab Alam for a duck with an inswinger. In his next over, he got the big one: Imran Farhat was struck in front of middle stump, swinging across the line, but he was unlucky as the ball had pitched well outside leg stump.PIA built on their luck, though. Cheema went on the rampage, bowling wicketkeeper Humayun Farhat with another late inswinger and then startling Danish Kaneria with a short ball that he could only fend to short leg. By the time Kaneria went, HBL were suddenly 242 for 8, only 14 ahead of PIA, when at tea they would have been dreaming of a lead of well over 100. PIA would be slightly disappointed they didn’t finish the job as tail-enders Masood and Mohammad Aslam saw off nine overs with the new ball at the end of the day.Before the dramatic collapse, Farhat had played a well-paced innings. Having come to the wicket in the fourth over after Kamran Hussain fell early, he started off slightly scratchily – three of his first four boundaries were thick edges to the third-man boundary – but settled in once the spinner Shoaib Malik came on to bowl, picking him for boundaries on either side of the wicket. He favoured the off side against the quicks, driving and cutting as HBL built a solid foundation for a big score.Unfortunately for Farhat, HBL’s scorecard looked very similar to PIA’s first-innings one: one batsman scoring big while the others struggled. For PIA it had been Sajid, and for HBL none of the middle-order players could build on Farhat’s start.

Salman Butt spent the entire third day of the spot-fixing hearings in Doha being examined first by his own lawyer before facing what has been described as “a tough” cross-examination by the ICC’s legal team

Osman Samiuddin in Doha08-Jan-2011Salman Butt, the former Pakistan captain, spent the entire third day of
the spot-fixing hearings in Doha being examined first by his own
lawyer before facing what has been described as “a tough”
cross-examination by the ICC’s legal team.Butt is facing charges of spot-fixing during the Lord’s Test between
Pakistan and England last summer along with bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir, the trio alleged to have bowled deliberate, pre-planned no-balls.Butt was Test captain at the time and he has since maintained his
innocence publicly and more aggressively than the other two players. In
several interviews on TV and elsewhere, he has explained the presence of
the money found in his hotel room after the scandal broke in the , as well as his relationship with Mazhar Majeed, the
player-agent caught on camera claiming he could orchestrate spot-fixing
within the side.The fact that he spent the whole day being examined indicates the
significance of his role in the proceedings and the part it may play in
the final outcome. One observer said the cross-questioning “had been a
tough one, though that is something they would have expected.” It also
increases the chances, with Asif and Amir still to present their
defence and be cross-examined, of the hearing lasting its full
scheduled duration till January 11.On Friday the ICC had heard from their witnesses, including Shahid Afridi, Waqar Younis and Mazhar Mahmood, the NOTW investigative reporter responsible for the initial story. The hearings also heard from Khawaja
Najam, who was the team’s security manager during the World Twenty20 and the
England tour, but has since stepped down from the post. In a recently
leaked report of statements Najam made to ICC investigators, details were revealed of the money and currency found in the
players’ rooms immediately after the Lord’s Test.Much of the questioning of the Pakistani witnesses on the second day of
the hearing had been to simply confirm or deny events and statements they
had already made, with little “beating about the bush” about surrounding
speculation. At least one of the witnesses believes that leaves little
scope for doubt to be created and suggests that the situation doesn’t
augur particularly well for the trio.It isn’t clear yet whether Butt’s cross-examination will continue on the
fourth day or who is to follow him on the stand. The order of appearance
has been pre-decided by the tribunal.The day didn’t appear to have visibly affected Butt. He walked out at the
end with his lawyer Yasin Patel looking considerably more relaxed than on
previous days, engaged in what appeared to be a discussion with Patel
about Imran Khan and Dennis Lillee.

World Cup winning captain Steve Waugh has said Australia are in with a chance to defend their World Cup crown despite inconsistent results since the start of 2010

Nagraj Gollapudi in Mumbai02-Feb-2011Steve Waugh, who led Australia to victory in the 1999 World Cup, has said Australia are in with a chance to defend their World Cup crown despite inconsistent results since the start of 2010. He claimed India and Sri Lanka will be strong contenders but didn’t rule out Ricky Ponting’s team. “Australia have an outside chance because they have matchwinners,” Waugh said at an event in Mumbai. “I don’t think this is a weaker Australian side.”It’s tough decision (to predict a winner). There are seven sides capable of winning but the side that has the momentum going into the quarter-final will be good. India are the slight favourites, as they know the conditions well and will have fantastic support. Sri Lanka have a very good chance too.”It might come as no surprise for Waugh to back the defending champions on a day when Australia pulled off their highest chase in ODIs, against England in Sydney. Australia had pocketed the seven-game series last week, and their dominant form in the ODIs after a humiliating Ashes drubbing only made Waugh confident about his countrymen. “Australia are still ranked No.1 in the world. In [Shaun] Tait, [Mitchell] Johnson and [Brett] Lee, they have the potential matchwinners. Their batsmen are also on top. Ricky is coming back from injury. Australian players are best when faced with adversity,” Waugh said.Austrlia’s winning percentage in 2010 in ODIs had taken a beating: of the 25 matches played, spread over seven series, they won 16 and lost eight including the series defeat to Sri Lanka at home. But the return to form of seniors like Michael Clarke and Lee, along with the matchwinning capabilities of Shane Watson, makes Australia a dangerous opponent. Waugh, a two-time World Cup winner including one as captain in 1999, said Lee would be the lynchpin for Australia. Lee returned for the England series after sitting out from October 2009 due to lingering elbow injury. But Lee has not compromised on pace and so far is the highest wicket-taker in the series with 11 wickets at an average of 24 in the six matches. “Lee will be my impact player. He has amazing resilience, he is bowling back at 150kph and he loves touring India” Waugh said.In the two World Cups held in the subcontinent (1987 and ’96), Australia have won 12 of the 15 matches they’ve played.

As Australia head towards the business end of the tournament, Ricky Ponting said it was “not ideal” preparation, and his batsmen will be keen for some time at the crease when they take on Kenya and Canada

Brydon Coverdale06-Mar-2011Australia’s batsmen will enter next Sunday’s match against Kenya having not had an innings for 15 days, after their wash-out in Colombo on Saturday. And as they head towards the business end of the tournament, Ricky Ponting said it was “not ideal” preparation, and his batsmen will be keen for some time at the crease when they take on Kenya and Canada in Bangalore.The rain pelted down after 32.5 overs of Sri Lanka’s innings on Saturday, denying the Australians a chance to chase what would have been a challenging total. And because of the comfortable victory over New Zealand in Nagpur a week earlier, several men will have had nothing but net practice since their tournament opener against Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on February 21.”It’s not ideal, but we’ve known that was a chance to happen right the way through, before the tournament even started,” Ponting said. “If you look a bit deeper than that, some of our middle-order players haven’t even got much exposure in the first couple of games either.”We’ll have to think about what’s going to be the right thing for us to do as far as our team composition and where we bat guys and how we use the bowlers in the two games coming up. I don’t want to be tinkering with things too much and changing things around too much, but after a game like today where you’re 30 overs in and it’s washed out, it just makes us think that little bit more about it.”That might mean a chance up the order for David Hussey, who has faced only eight balls in the World Cup, or Steven Smith, who has spent only four deliveries at the crease. Adding to the squeeze is Michael Hussey, who’s been called up as the injured Doug Bollinger’s replacement.Although the washout is unlikely to hurt Australia considerably, it was less than ideal for the Sri Lankans, who now have only five points from four matches. If Australia win as expected against Kenya and Canada, it will extend their unbeaten run in World Cup matches to 34, and it could mean their final pool match against Pakistan is a battle to finish on top of Group A.”We want to win every game we play, it’s as simple as that,” Ponting said. “We won’t be talking about anything else. We’ve got two of the lesser lights, the minnow teams coming up in the next week, so hopefully we can get the results we require out of those games and then we know we’ve got to come back here and play what looks to be a very good Pakistan side.”

Ravi Rampaul has described his delivery that got rid of Sachin Tendulkar as the best ball of his career

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Mar-2011″It was the perfect ball at the perfect time.” That’s how Ravi Rampaul, the West Indies seamer, described his delivery that got rid of Sachin Tendulkar in the first over in Chennai. Rampaul, in his first World Cup match, went on to take a maiden five-wicket haul in ODIs but his team was at the receiving end of an 80-run defeat. Despite the eventual loss, the five-for, and delivery, marked a personal highlight for Rampaul.”It was the best ball of my cricket career. It was one of those moments in life you dream of. When I saw him walk I felt great. It was an amazing feeling. I wasn’t sure how to celebrate. Here was I, in one of the biggest matches of my career, getting the wicket of one of the greatest batsmen. I felt really great to get such a massive breakthrough for the team,” Rampaul said.Rampaul was drafted in to the XI due to an illness to Kemar Roach. He began on an unsavoury note, conceding five wides off his first delivery in World Cup cricket. But off the final ball of that first over, he got a shortish delivery on off stump to straighten, one that Tendulkar stabbed at and ended up feathering an edge to the keeper. Tendulkar walked off immediately after he was caught, even though Steve Davis, the umpire, shook his head.”I was happy to get into the team and play my part. It was very exciting to play in front such a large crowd on such a big stage,” Rampaul said. “I went out and got five wickets and I was really happy to get the full support of everyone in the team. I was happy to be able to make the most of my opportunity.”Rampaul returned in his next spell to break a century-stand between Virat Kohli and Yuvraj Singh, and continued to chip away in the death overs when India, as they had done against South Africa, collapsed. He finished with 5 for 51. “The pitch had some extra bounce at the start of the India innings and I knew if I got the ball in the right areas I would be successful,” he said. “Later in the innings I got the ball to reverse swing and I attacked the stumps. Things went in my favour and I felt good to get my first five-wicket haul in one-day cricket.”The defeat for West Indies meant they finished fourth in Group B, setting up a quarter-final clash in Dhaka against Group A leaders Pakistan on March 23.

01-May-2011
Scorecard
Varun Chopra continued his prolific start to the season as Warwickshire beat
Leicestershire by nine runs to register their first Clydesdale Bank 40 victory
since winning the trophy at Lord’s last September.The former Essex opener made 115 from 110 balls as the holders piled up 294 for
5 – 27 short of their record 40-over score in the corresponding fixture last
May – and overcame James Taylor’s 101 in restricting Leicestershire to 285 for
7.Not content with two double-centuries in the County Championship, Chopra
compiled his first limited-overs hundred for Warwickshire and comfortably
surpassed his previous one-day best of 102 for Essex against Middlesex in 2007.Now in the form of his life after an injury-interrupted first season in the
midlands, he systematically dissected the bowling, reaching his 50 with six
boundaries and then adding one more four and three sixes before he was dismissed
in 37th over.Having survived one sketchy shot over mid-on off Alex Wyatt early in his
innings, he completed his century before Wayne White misjudged a clear-cut
chance at deep mid-wicket off Nadeem Malik.Leicestershire often looked ragged in the field as Warwickshire turned up the
heat after a routine start in which William Porterfield (32) was the more
positive of the openers until he dragged White’s fourth delivery to short
mid-wicket.Chopra gathered momentum in a partnership of 116 with Mohammad Yousuf. The two
batsmen matched other, run for run, until Yousuf (56) failed to clear deep
square leg and gave the unusually expensive Claude Henderson his only success in
eight overs costing 70 runs.Chopra was finally caught at long-on off White and Rikki Clarke, having hit two
sixes in a quick-fire 39, was bowled by Matthew Hoggard.Josh Cobb (40) and Jacques Du Toit (39) gave the Foxes a solid platform and
Mathew Boyce stepped up the pace with 48 from 31 balls in a partnership of 78 in
7.4 overs with the resourceful Taylor.They plundered 35 in two overs from Keith Barker during the second batting
powerplay, and when Boyce was caught at mid-on – a second wicket for
Loughborough University off-spinner Maurice Holmes – Taylor went on to his
century in 85 deliveries.The England Lions batsman, who managed only eight boundaries in a perfectly
paced innings, was bowled next ball by Chris Woakes.Leicestershire then needed 26 from the last two overs but fell short despite
White’s six off Woakes in reaching 29 not out.

Up to eight top Pakistan players are likely to be in the running to play in the first edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL)

Osman Samiuddin09-May-2011Up to eight top Pakistan players are likely to be in the running to play in the first edition of the Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL), allowing players from that country to finally benefit from some of the riches on offer in lucrative Twenty20 leagues around the world. The SLPL, likely to feature players from around the world, is scheduled to be held at the end of July and beginning of August this year, a window in the FTP where Pakistan has no commitments currently.Both Pakistan captains – Shahid Afridi from the limited overs side and Misbah-ul-Haq from the Test side – have been approached, as have Shoaib Akhtar, Shoaib Malik and Umar Gul.The players were first approached directly by the organisers of the tournament, the Singapore-based Somerset Entertainment, something that the PCB wasn’t pleased about. But eventually the organisers contacted the PCB asking for clearance for the players to participate and they have been given a positive response. “We told them, in theory, we have no issues with our players taking part in the tournament,” a senior board official told ESPNcricinfo. “The first priority of each player of course will be Pakistan’s international commitments and if there is something on in that window and the player concerned is picked for Pakistan, that commitment will take priority.”The participation of Malik will depend on whether he will be cleared by the PCB’s integrity committee, a condition which has kept him out of the national side since last summer.Players from Pakistan are currently the only ones from the Test-playing nations not to be taking part in the richest domestic Twenty20 league of all, the IPL. Though a number of players took part in the inaugural season of the tournament, in 2008, deteriorating political ties between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks later that year have led to them missing out since, much to the chagrin of the players themselves, some of whom can rightly claim to be among the best international players in the format. The players were even put into the auction for the third season of the IPL but no franchise was willing to buy them, given the potentially tricky diplomatic and logistical issues that could have emerged.For similar reasons, no Pakistan domestic side has taken part in the equally lucrative IPL spin-off, the Champions League, which brings together the best domestic Twenty20 sides from around the world. A few Pakistan players, including Afridi, Gul and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan have taken part in the Australian Big Bash but the timing of it generally tends to clash with international commitments and so curtails participation.There is also regular participation in Twenty20 competitions in England, as well as longer-term county contracts but by and large, Pakistan’s players have missed out on the bonanza of the last few years. “We are aware that our players have not benefitted as others around the world have done, though much of this is out of our hands,” the official said. “This will be a good opportunity, if things work out, for them to take part.”Though full financial details of the league are yet to emerge, one estimate suggests that there will be three salary tabs with the highest at US$ 30,000.

England fast bowler James Anderson has said that having another stint as national captain may not be the “best thing” for Kevin Pietersen

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jun-2011England fast bowler James Anderson has said that having another stint as national captain would not be the “best thing” for Kevin Pietersen.Pietersen was named England captain in August 2008 but his stint ended in acrimony barely five months later after a much-publicised falling-out with then-coach Peter Moores. Andrew Strauss took up the role ahead of England’s tour of the Caribbean in February 2009, and soon formed a formidable partnership with the new coach Andy Flower, another man about whom Pietersen had expressed reservations.Though Pietersen had expressed his desire to captain England again after rumours emerged that Strauss would give up the limited-overs post earlier this year, he was passed over for the position, as the ECB chose to go with Alastair Cook as ODI captain.In his column in the Anderson wrote: “Having seen him before, during and after he did the job, I believe he is actually much better suited to having a smaller but still important leadership role within the team, without the extra pressure of captaincy.”Perhaps the biggest lesson the experience [of captaincy] has taught him is the value of team spirit and togetherness. His period in charge under the new coach Peter Moores was not a great time for the team; there were some big characters, big egos and big opinions in the dressing room. To me, too many people were bothered about who was the coach when they should have been focusing on performances on the field.”Anderson wrote there was “a big change in Kevin’s attitude since he suffered the disappointment of being sacked as England captain”.”While he will probably say different, there may have been a time in the past when Kevin was possibly not the perfect team player. He still has a big voice in the dressing room but these days he is a strong team man.”Anderson observed Pietersen “has had to contend with a lot more on and off the field than most other players,” brought on by, as critics would call “‘KP, the brand’, but that “when he’s with us, there is no ‘brand’ in sight.Following a dip in form Pietersen made a hard-fought 72 in the second innings of the Lord’s Test against Sri Lanka and while “one score doesn’t mean you’re back in form”, Anderson wrote that Pietersen “has been looking so good in the nets and he is so talented that we knew it was only a matter of time before he started scoring runs again, those runs still have to be scored and last week’s effort will have done him and England a lot of good”.