Maddy makes merry as Pietersen flops
Source -
sportinglife.com
Kevin Pietersen was put in the shade by two unlikely heroes as Australia restricted the PCA Masters XI to 167 for six.
Kevin Pietersen was put in the shade by two unlikely heroes as Australia restricted the PCA Masters XI to 167 for six in tonight's Twenty20 curtain-raiser to the Ashes series.
Michael Clarke saw off Pietersen as the middle man in a hat-trick which stalled the Masters' impetus.
But Twenty20 expert Darren Maddy (70no) then hit a 41-ball half-century to ensure a reasonably testing total was mustered after his team had been put in on a warm but increasingly cloudy evening at Arundel.
The Masters were in immediate trouble when captain Stephen Fleming fluffed his lines, fencing the first ball of the match off Brett Lee to his opposite number Ricky Ponting who made no mistake at second slip.
After the New Zealander's instant elimination, Paul Collingwood and Maddy built the required momentum - with Lee and first-change Mike Kasprowicz helping them out by dropping too short too often.
They made hay in a 68-run second-wicket stand until the Durham all-rounder was done in the air by Clarke and failed to clear deep extra-cover off the final ball of the slow left-armer's first over.
Much of the crowd had come to see English cricket's rising star Pietersen and were therefore probably delighted to see Collingwood off for a useful cameo in time to clear the way for their hero in waiting.
They were less enchanted, though, when Pietersen - who had spent the early hours of this morning failing in a publicity stunt to hit a cricket ball across the River Thames in central London - made only six runs.
His second less-than-successful swipe of the day presented a dolly catch close to the popping crease for wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist.
Clarke completed his hat-trick when Graeme Swann donated his wicket first ball, taking the occasion a little too literally by going 'walkabout' to be stumped down the leg side.
Maddy - the guiding force behind Leicestershire's unexpected march to Twenty20 glory last year - also soon lost his county colleague Paul Nixon, the victim of a run-out mix-up.
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