There was another problem, too. Pietersen's height and exceptional reach allows him to force deliveries from McGrath (and Warne) that others look to defend. He gets further down the pitch then any serious batsman in history – without leaving his crease – yet has a keen enough eye to attack the short stuff too. McGrath, whose game is based on sustained accuracy, has no length to bowl. Pietersen later waltzed up the wicket to him as he would a spinner and Flintoff laid into him as he might a club trundler. There was scant respect.