Pietersen gets back in the groove as Cook makes history

Pietersen, returning to the ground where he played for Hampshire up until last year, fell 15 runs short of delighting a sell-out crowd with his first Test century in this country since 2008.

But he found it easy to console himself with the knowledge he had played especially well in a 115-ball innings which contained 14 fours and ensured an England recovery from 14-2 to 195-4 by stumps on day three of this drastically rain-affected Test.

Alastair Cook (55) was also in fluent form in a 106-run stand which also saw the opener make modern cricket history as the first Englishman for almost 50 years to post six successive Test half-centuries.

Pietersen had no regrets. “Actually it wasn’t frustrating at all,” he said, having become Thisara Perera’s maiden Test wicket just before stumps.

“To play the way I’ve played has given me a lot of happiness.

“To have gone back to basics and hit the ball straight and kept penetrating the opposite stumps, and playing in three or four areas, for me was brilliant.

“If you’d said to me (Saturday morning) 85 and to play the way I played, the hundreds will come – and a lot of them, I hope.”

Pietersen drove especially well down the ground and through the off-side, and was rarely tempted into trying what were once his trademark whips to mid-wicket.

“I had three or four scoring areas I’ve been really working hard on.

“One of them was the ball that got me out, half-volley under the eyes hitting it through extra-cover, hitting it down the ground, and then short balls I look to score off.

“Those are the few areas I look to score well off, and then bat time and be patient. They bowled pretty straight to me, and I was lucky enough to line it up really well.”

He denied he was out trying to reach three figures before the close and was unsurprised that Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara used Rangana Herath so sparingly against him, even though he has so often been undone by left-arm spin.

“There was only one or two overs left. I’d have had to have played one or two outrageous strokes to have got to a hundred (that night),” he said. “I just did exactly what I’d done the whole time I batted. All I needed to do was hit it through extra-cover and pick up some more runs for the team.”

Herath bowled just one over until deep into the evening session.

But Pietersen said: “I wasn’t surprised at all. You guys (the media) seem to have a problem with that – I don’t.”