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With all due respect to Monty Panesar’s mesmeric stuff late in the day, KP’s thrilling strokeplay – in a match which has not proved easy pickings for a number of batsmen – was the outstanding feature of .

One of the less reported facts about Pietersen is that he is actually quite a slow starter.

It took him 23 minutes to hit a boundary, and only after he had lost Michael Vaughan did he show any real attacking intent.

Perhaps affronted by RP Singh’s removal of his skipper, he square cut Zaheer Khan for four and cover-drove him for another boundary from successive balls.

He throttled back for a while, as Singh removed Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell, taking 88 balls to reach his fifty.

But after lunch, fortified by his burgeoning partnership with Matt Prior, he cut loose.

An off-drive here, a leg-glance there and a steer through midwicket took him to 89 at which point he was facing Anil Kumble, bowling from the Nursery End.

Pietersen cut ferociously for four, and danced down the wicket for a six that hung ostentatiously in the air before nestling on top of the covers.

One more flick through the leg-side got him to the landmark so coveted by batsmen, and he looked in total control.

Only when England’s hopeless tail-end batting forced another flurry of wickets – and Rahul Dravid put every fielder back on the boundary - did he run out of steam.

Inevitably, his wicket was a slightly deflating moment – but it also freed up some time for a number of people (including cricket journalists) to watch the climax of The Open.

It is symptomatic of the sheer bulk of international cricket played these days that a Lord’s Test can be scheduled at the same time as the most important golf event of the British summer.

And though it was odd to see around 25 of us crowded around the screen relaying events from north of the border – while Monty’s battle with Sourav Ganguly was largely ignored – it was not entirely unexpected.

In any case, it was thoroughly entertaining hearing Geoffrey Boycott lay into Padraig Harrington’s approach to the 18th – before Graham Gooch and David Lloyd argued about the play-off rules.