It might have brought in the biggest fifth day crowd at Lord's but an India-England Test is still not at par with the Ashes for Kevin Pietersen as he feels the "genuine hatred" that his team has for the Australians is missing from it.
It might have brought in the biggest fifth day crowd at Lord's but an India-England Test is still not at par with the Ashes for Kevin Pietersen as he feels the "genuine hatred" that his team has for the Australians is missing from it.
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The MCC said 28,500 spectators, including 6,000 free under-16s, attended the final day's play of the India-England opening Test -- the biggest head-count on the fifth day.
England went on to win the match by a massive 196 runs. Spectators' interest notwithstanding, Pietersen said it still cannot match the Ashes intensity.
"The queues outside when we arrived at the ground proved just how much interest the public are showing in it," Pietersen said.
"But this is totally different to the Ashes - where there is genuine hatred between England and Australia - so the feeling for us in terms of the cricket itself is very different," he added.
The double-centurion Man of the match, who has scored four hundreds in nine Tests against India, lauded his team's bowlers.
"We've always said this was going to be a huge series. It's amazing to stand in the field and watch a great bowling unit at work," he said.
"We get regular breakdowns and percentages of the areas they are looking to hit and these boys are up there with the very best in the business," he added.
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