Pietersen to finish series with a flourish at favoured ground

Kevin Pietersen relishes a blast with the willow at the Oval, the scene of his heroic Ashes knock of 158 in 2005.

There’s no question Ian Bell has been far and away England’s outstanding batsman in the series, having racked up three separate centuries on his way to 500 runs ahead of the final Test.

However, the best of the rest is definitely Pietersen. England’s most naturally gifted batsman has reached 276 runs for the series, and is still one of only three England players to have claimed a ton alongside Joe Root.

KP is currently priced alongside a quartet of Englishman at 4/1 to make the most first innings runs, though a quick delve into the South African-born batsman’s Test record at the Oval, makes him the stand-out choice.

When looking at the total amount of individual Test runs at Surrey’s ground, England’s number four is seventh on the all-time list, despite actually playing far less innings than many other esteemed names on the board.

Furthermore, his Test average south of the Thames stands at 60.38, which is over 12 more runs than the next nearest of England’s current line-up, where the horribly out-of-nick Jonathan Trott is next on 48.17.

In seven Test matches Pietersen has played at the famous old ground, he’s recorded four centuries, which is only one short of the late-great Herbert Suttcliffe who played seven Tests there between 1924-1935.

The most recent of those knocks arrived in 2011 against India, where the flamboyant shot-maker racked up 175 in the first innings of the match. Coincidentally, that game was also the closing Test of India’s doomed tour of England that summer.

Although Pietersen only returned 70 runs at Chester-le-Street, both knocks still represented the third best of any of the hosts’ batsmen in either innings, while his 113 at Old Trafford also came in the first innings.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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