Pietersen's astonishing knock thwarts County

Kevin Pietersen hit an astonishing 326 not out at the Kia Oval as he almost single-handedly earned Surrey a first innings lead of 236 in their LV= CC match against Leicestershire.

The hosts were struggling at 119-4 early on day two in reply to Leicestershire’s 292 but Pietersen struck 34 fours and 14 sixes in total as he registered the highest first-class score of his career. Amazingly, the next best Surrey score in their 528-9 was Kumar Sangakkara’s 36.

By stumps Pietersen, who said that “Leicestershire bowled really well this morning” had given himself the chance to better the highest individual score against the club, made 110 years ago by Yorkshire’s George Hirst (341).

Indeed, it was only the fourth triple-hundred scored in first-class cricket against County following Hirst, Murray Goodwin (335 for Sussex in 2003) and Graeme Smith (311 for Somerset in 2005). It was also a Surrey individual record against Leicestershire, beating the 295 not out made by Alastair Brown at Oakham School in 2000.

There were only three chances for Leicestershire to end his stay. On 96 he gave a sharp low caught and bowled chance to Naik. On 110 he nicked Ben Raine low through Mark Cosgrove’s hands at slip and on 165 he survived a difficult, swirling catch to long-off where Lewis Hill was running backwards.

Cosgrove said: “We bowled pretty well today and Surrey would be nine wickets down for 200 but for that unbelievable innings by Kevin Pietersen. We have witnessed an extraordinary day.”

Surrey resumed on 105-2 but soon lost in-form duo Sangakkara and Steven Davies. Sangakkara fell to the ninth ball of the morning, well held by a diving Neil Pinner at second slip off the impressive Clint McKay, and soon Davies was also gone to another Pinner catch in the cordon, this time off Raine.

Jason Roy made a cameo 27 before edging Charlie Shreck to Niall O’Brien and, with just 164 on the board, half the Surrey side was back in the pavilion. But Pietersen, who completed his 50^th first-class century from 153 balls with 12 fours and two sixes in the last over before lunch, took the lead role in a number of vital partnerships in the second half of the innings.

He shared 77, 42, 34, 101 and finally an unbroken 110 respectively with Gary Wilson, Gareth Batty, Tom Curran, Chris Tremlett and Matt Dunn. The No 11 scored a mere five runs as he hung around in support.

Jigar Naik winkled out Wilson (18) and Batty (15), caught by McKay and Ned Eckersley respectively, Curran (18) fell caught behind off McKay, who also bowled Tremlett (30) as he maintained an economy rate below three runs per over.

But while those wickets fell, Pietersen kept moving through the milestones. He went past his best Test score of 227, his previous highest for Surrey of 234 not out against Lancashire three years ago at Guildford, and then his previous career-best of 254 not out for Nottinghamshire against Middlesex at Trent Bridge in 2002.

Pietersen’s double-hundred was recorded from 276 balls with 26 fours and two sixes. Pietersen then needed only 97 more balls to score another 126 runs, including twelve more sixes and a further eight fours. His triple-century, completed with an 11^th maximum, took 349 balls in total.

Bowling figures for Leicestershire: McKay 27-6-78-3, Shreck 25-2-139-1, Raine 27-4-111-3, Taylor 18-2-77-0, Naik 28-4-114-2, Cosgrove 3-1-4-0.