Kevin Pietersen does not think 186 against India is his greatest ever knock
Kevin Pietersen's stunning knock of 186 is often regarded as one of the greatest innings by an opposition batsman in India. But while the England batsman rates the knock highly, he does not consider it to be his greatest ever innings, preferring his 151 against Sri Lanka in Colombo instead.
"I knew on that day I was going to get runs. I didn't know how many I was going to get, but it was just one of those days. A lot of the broadcasters say it is the best innings that has ever been played by a foreigner on Indian soil. That doesn't feel right or like it was me that did it."
"Mentally I didn't think I'd be able to score more than 40 or 50 in Sri Lanka. To score those kind of runs, I thought it would be physically and emotionally impossible, never going to happen. Scoring runs in India was never a problem; I always scored runs in India."
Kevin Pietersen's 186 in the second Test of the 2012 series helped England end their long wait to win a series away in India.
"He bored the life out of everybody" - Kevin Pietersen on Alastair Cook's man of the series performance against India
Alastair Cook was named Man of the Series after guiding England to a stunning series win away to India. The England captain led the way by scoring 562 runs, and Kevin Pietersen feels that his success came as a result of boring the life out of everybody.
"He manipulated the field and bored the life out of everybody. I don't mean that in a bad way; I mean that in a really positive way. He was able to get unbelievable miles into the bowlers while I was trying my best to do slap Harry on the other side."
The series win is considered to be one of England's best ever away triumphs in Test cricket. India haven't lost a Test series at home since, but England will no doubt look to change that when the two sides face off next month.