Michael Vaughan: Aussies playing on Pietersen’s ego

The way to beat a quality team is to target the strengths and Australia have done just that by dismantling the spine of England. The power of Alastair Cook, Graeme Swann, James Anderson and Matthew Prior has been nullified by some excellent plans executed by a team desperate to finally beat England.

In Pietersen’s case, Australia have played on his talent and ego incredibly well in this series. They stationed two men on the leg-side catching in the first four innings and his inability to say, “right I am going to play elsewhere”, was his downfall. His ego told him to play the same way and he was caught out twice.

Australia have restricted his scoring opportunities by bowling as many dots as possible and then tested his ego with the odd short ball or carrot outside off-stump to waft at. For a long time, Peter Siddle has loved bowling at Pietersen. He bowls tight to the stumps and regularly lands the ball on the fourth stump (the imaginary extra wicket outside off).

He prods him with a short ball knowing he will go for the shot. Whoever came up with that plan has cracked Pietersen and the execution has been impressive. Kevin is at the stage of his career when he has to ask if he still has the inner drive to carry on. He is too good to keep getting out the way he has in this series. We have not seen the KP I know or like to watch bat. I see him trying to fight but the dismissals so far have been soft for a senior player batting in an inexperienced line-up and the England management will know it has not been good enough.

Cook showed on Saturday that the most important part of a captain’s armoury is the six inches in his head. I call it the Penthouse suite. His mind is tough, which he showed by the way he played. It was not pretty and he made it look difficult at times, but at least he went out there to fight.

You could tell he was trying to lead by example but, unfortunately, a score of 72, while a good effort, is not good enough. In 2010-11 he was making a big 100 or even a double century in the same situation. This time, he is up against a better Australian team, he is under more pressure personally, he is carrying the knowledge his England team is not as good as it was and he is having to handle the pressure of being 2-0 down in the series.

As a captain, it adds up to a massive burden. You know as senior player you have to score runs to give yourself a chance of winning the Test and getting back in the series. Australia have bowled well at him. They have held a nice line full on off-stump bringing him forward and mixing it up with the odd sharp bouncer. He is in the situation of batting against a team who know how to bowl at him.

It is a problem resulting from playing back-to-back series against the same opposition. Normally, you begin a series against an attack who have to find out how to bowl at you. But in back-to-back series it can be hard work if they find a method of getting you out. Australia have found a plan to make it tough to score freely and made his life hard.

The same applies to KP. Watching England bowl on this tour has been a throwback to 10 years ago when we were always searching for pace and mystery spin. We needed to find someone who could bowl at 90-95mph to have penetration to blow away tail-enders and put the fear of life into a batting line-up.

England have been successful in recent years by swinging the ball around and creating opportunities bowling at pace of around 82-86mph. It has been lateral movement and the skill levels of Anderson and Broad that have created plenty of opportunities, particularly with the Duke ball in England.

In Australia, in 2010-11, the batsmen trusted their ability to play against a depleted Australia attack and that allowed an attritional approach with the ball because England’s bowlers performed with the luxury of runs on the board. In this series, England have lost some important tosses and not managed to get enough runs against an Australian side with a different mindset. They have scored quicker, which has put Anderson and Swann under more pressure.