Pundit Pietersen watches his record fall

Colombo: Kevin Pietersen watched Luke Wright break one of his England records from a television studio on the other side of Colombo.

The pair were team-mates when Pietersen hit 79 against Zimbabwe in Cape Town in the first World Twenty20 in 2007, which remained the highest by an England batsman in the tournament until Wright’s assault on the Afghanistan bowlers.

Pietersen was not asked to comment immediately, as the Philips Cricket Extra programme for which he has been signed up for the tournament by ESPN Star Sports is screened before and after matches, but not between innings.

He had been on duty for most of the day — the rumours are that his deal with ESPN is worth well in excess of $1m (Dh3.67 million), so they are entitled to work him hard — wearing union flag cufflinks and sharing a few elephant-related jokes with David Lloyd during the coverage of the earlier Bangladesh-New Zealand game.

He was then highly amused when Nasser Hussain, who was part of the commentary team at the Premadasa Stadium, agreed with his pre-match suggestion that England’s bowlers had to be careful not to overdo the short stuff against the Afghanistan batsmen.

“Wow, Nasser agrees with me,” Pietersen said — the former England captain has recently backed the management’s stance in omitting him from this competition, and now the Test tour of India. “I’ve almost fallen off my chair, Nass.”

Pietersen was not asked about the tweet he had sent earlier in the day to Dan Carter, the All Blacks rugby union fly-half, that was interpreted by some as an indication that he will be back in the England team for the tour of New Zealand early next year. “Hoping all’s sorted and I’m on the NZ tour in Feb,” Pietersen told Carter.

More significantly, Hugh Morris, the managing director of England cricket who arrived in Sri Lanka this week, confirmed that he plans to hold further talks with Pietersen in Colombo during his stay.

They will be well away from prying eyes and certainly not at the England hotel, as Pietersen sensibly rearranged his plans to stay there to avoid any awkward encounters in the foyer or the lift.

Back at the Premadasa, Wright was interviewed by Hussain on the outfield within minutes of being left unbeaten on 99. “I’ll take that,” the Sussex all-rounder said with a smile, praising Alex Hales for taking the pressure off him early in an England innings that was effectively reduced to 19 overs after Craig Kieswetter provided the worst possible start, out to the final ball of a wicket maiden.

“Hales did brilliantly to get us off to a start,” Wright added. “I batted around him. The main thing was getting to a nice total after quite a tough start.”

Hales could also empathise with any mixed feelings Wright might have been hiding, having been dismissed himself for 99 in England’s victory against West Indies at Trent Bridge this summer.

That had also been a record-breaking innings, beating Eoin Morgan’s previous best for an England batsman in Twenty20 cricket, as Hales seized the chance provided by Pietersen’s retirement from One Day Internationals.

So the wait for an England player to reach three figures in T20 cricket continues, whereas a few hours earlier New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum had become the first batsman to do so twice.

McCullum, who remains best-known in these parts for the remarkable innings of 158 from 73 balls for Kolkata Knight Riders on the opening night of the Indian Premier League in Bangalore in 2008, smashed 123 off 58 balls as the Black Caps crushed Bangladesh by 59 runs in their first match of the tournament in Pallekele — where they will now almost certainly face England in the Super Eights stage next week.

McCullum’s innings was a record in T20 international cricket, beating an unbeaten 117 by South Africa’s Richard Levi in New Zealand earlier this year.