During the course of his knock, he became the third-fastest English player after Herbert Sutcliffe and Len Hutton to cross 4,000 Test runs, and joined Matthew Hayden, Brian Lara and Marcus Trescothick as the only batsmen to have scored more than 1,000 runs in three consecutive years. This was his 15th Test hundred, his third against India and second as skipper — throw a fractured rib into the mix, and Pietersen’s effort comes off as colossal.

Dream start

When play started, Zaheer Khan trapped Strauss leg-before with the third ball of the day and Ishant Sharma knocked down Ian Bell’s middle stump to put England firmly on the backfoot, but Alastair Cook and Pietersen stemmed the early rout against the new ball. Cook complemented his captain with a 56-ball half-century built on a reprieve by Sachin Tendulkar at slip. He then surprisingly got stuck for 11 balls without adding to his score before Zaheer yorked him.

Paul Collingwood lasted just three balls after Amit Mishra was introduced into the attack, edging a ball that drifted in and spun big to Dhoni behind the stumps. That brought Flintoff to the crease, and between slices of luck, he and Pietersen stamped their authority in an extended session between lunch and tea, using their big reach and brute power to good effect.

Pietersen smacked Harbhajan for a six over mid-wicket with his first switch-hit, and tried it several times against Mishra — surprisingly missing it twice before getting one to the boundary.

... contd.