Hundred was not to be: KP

Kevin Pietersen has dismissed criticism about his dismissal for 97 in the opening Test against West Indies on Wednesday. Pietersen showed his class in 3-1/2 hours at the crease and looked set for another Test hundred, after clattering two fours and a six off successive balls from Suleiman Benn.

But the former England captain tried ill-advisedly to clear the wide long-on boundary with another slog/sweep, top-edged the delivery, and was caught by wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.

"That's the way," Pietersen told reporters. "I got to 97 playing that way, so it just wasn't meant to be. It was very tough to have been dismissed in that way. You can't play so nicely as you expect on a first day Test pitch. But the position in which we have gotten ourselves - with the outfield as slow as it has been - we would have been pushing 280 to 300 in better conditions.

"I think we are in a pretty good position, after losing only five wickets, and knowing that we do not have to bat last on this pitch is pretty positive."

Pietersen admitted that he had been careful over the first half of his innings, but he noted the situation at the time required a steady hand, and he was happy to provide it. "I think on that pitch you have got to play situations," he said. "That is what I have done in the last few years of my career.

"Instead of going out there and trying to be dominant, trying to be forceful, I am still trying to be some of that, but I was as dominant and forceful as I could have been on that pitch because I like to score runs, and I do not like to block all day. I think he was getting tired, and I went after him because I thought it would have been his last over."

Pietersen insisted that scoring runs remains his primary role, after he resigned the captaincy in controversial circumstances just prior to the team's departure for the Caribbean. "I love batting. . .I love scoring runs. . .and I love playing for England," he said.

"To get 97, if somebody had said to me when everything was kicking off a month ago that I would have gotten 97 in this Test match, I would have said, 'Thank you, very much'! I am a happy boy because the team is in a pretty good position."

Pietersen believes that Monty Panesar will be handful on the pitch, after Benn and West Indies captain Chris Gayle exploited the surface to gain appreciable bounce and turn.
"I think the way he has been bowling in the last few weeks, the new Monty Panesar seems to have emerged," the former England captain said.

The last few weeks he has really impressed me. He was under a lot of pressure in India, and for the last six months, he probably has not bowled as well as he could have, but I have had some long chats with him in the last few weeks, and he is in a real good place which is great."

England resume on the second day on 236 for five.