KP on Dolphins fortunes and Proteas woes

Pietersen wrapps up his short T20 stint with the Dolphins this weekend. In the first four matches, he's managed two centuries and a unbeaten 68-run knock.

Reflecting on his two weeks with the Durban franchise, the former Maritzburg College boy commended coach Lance Klusener for setting up a good team environment at the Sahara Stadium Kingsmead.

“It’s very good; a calm, cool environment where guys are there to enjoy themselves and flourish as cricketers – Lance doesn’t put too much pressure, he’s very relaxed and that’s the kind of coach that I really like,” Pietersen said. “If you are going to make it, you will because you’re dedicated, you’re a hard worker and you’re going to train well. If you’re not going to make it, you will be a person that takes the easy route, easy options and those kinds of coaches (like Klusener) are great because they work out exactly who the guys are that want the easy routes, get rid of them and keep hold of the good guys.”

While his form with the bat paid dividends during his short stay, Pietersen believes his mentorship role was just as important at the KZN outfit.

“I think it was my responsibility, and I said it before I got here, that when you take on a job like this you come to hand over information and experience and I think that’s one of my key roles. Scoring runs is what I want to do, but one of my key roles was handing over information and I think it was well-received.”

While Pietersen can only dream of being reselected to play for England on their Tour of South Africa next month, the English batsman had some words of wisdom for the Proteas, who struggled to handle the Indian spinners in the first Test last week.

“They need to bat better. They can’t play spin the way that some of the South Africans were, they need to play the spin better. When we (England) beat India they were on exactly the same wickets, I’ve played on those wickets and it’s a fallacy that they talk about Indians playing spin the best in the world. When we played them they had Tendulkar, Sehwag, all those guys and we were able to bowl them out and score more runs than them,”  Pietersen said.

“You’ve just got to be able to play spin really well in India and that takes time and experience. The way some of the guys played spin in the first Test doesn’t look good for the rest of the series but you never know. It also depends on spinners and the pace that they bowl. When we played against them and beat them, our spinners out-bowled them. We bowled a lot faster and we got the ball to spin a lot more. Alastair Cook then batted for ages and I was lucky enough to play some cameos with some other guys. South Africa needs a guy at the top of the order to bat for a day, pick length, play spin well – they need De Villiers and Amla to come in and put on some really good cameos,” Pietersen concluded.

The Proteas take on India in the second Test starting in Bangalore on Saturday.

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