KEVIN PIETERSEN’S appearances for Hampshire are so fleeting that the entertainment quota has to be cranked up a bit.

Playing his first match of the season for them , which was also his penultimate one before England duty calls again, Pietersen rescued his county from an embarrassing start and put them in a winning position against Essex. And it was all done with style.

“Kevin took the game by the scruff of the neck and changed it,” Shane Warne, the Hampshire captain who had arrived in Britain from Australia only 24 hours earlier, said. “You don’t see too many knocks like that. It’s a shame we don’t have him for the whole year.”

Having been dropped by James Foster on one, Pietersen was out two runs short of his first limited-overs century for Hampshire. A more telling statistic might be that it was only his tenth one-day match for the county.

“I would love to play more for Hampshire, but the next 12 to 18 months is mental and I will fit Hampshire in when I can,” Pietersen said. “If I bowled as much as the other blokes, it could hurt the body more, but I just love being out there in the middle — I love batting, I love fielding and I love being around the lads. In ten years, I’m going to miss cricket, so I want to fit in as much as I can now.”

Warne knows the benefits of restricting the number of matches he plays and said that he would not be going to the World Cup in the West Indies next year with Australia. “I’ve retired from one-day international cricket, as I’ve said 14,000 times,” he said.

“I’ve got no aspirations of playing in the World Cup. I’ve handed my number down to Michael Clarke, I haven’t played for three years and my Test cricket has been better than ever. I hope I get an invitation on a boat [during the World Cup] — that’s as close as I’ll get.”

Darren Gough bowled only 14 balls on a soggy pitch — the final one being that which saw Pietersen dropped — and took two wickets before pulling a hamstring. When Andre Adams removed Jon Crawley and Dominic Thornely, Hampshire were 12 for four, but Pietersen threw off the restraints and put on a brisk 117 for the fourth wicket with Michael Carberry.

He took a shine in particular to Graham Napier with two fours in an over and a huge straight six. Ravi Bopara lasted only two overs before Ronnie Irani, the Essex captain, saved him from further punishment. Grant Flower’s spin also got special treatment, with a party-piece reverse sweep to the cover-point boundary and a soaring six over square leg before Pietersen was trapped leg-before on 98, trying a premeditated sweep to a ball from James Middlebrook.

Warne and Dimitri Mascarenhas put on 51 but when they were out, Hampshire’s innings petered out at 257.

Andy Flower and Bopara, who put on 95 for the fourth Essex wicket, pushed the target beneath 100. But wickets began to tumble and, when Warne struck twice in two balls, Hampshire were close to victory. Thornely took the final two wickets, Foster the last man out perishing to a skyer gobbled up by Shaun Udal.

SCOREBOARD FROM THE ROSE BOWL

HAMPSHIRE

N Pothas c Foster b Gough 0
J P Crawley c Cook b Adams 3
S M Ervine c Foster b Gough 2
K P Pietersen lbw b Middlebrook 98
D J Thornely b Adams 0
M A Carberry b ten Doeschate 34
A D Mascarenhas run out 29
*S K Warne b Bopara 30
S D Udal c sub b Bopara 23
J T A Bruce not out 19
B V Taylor not out 0
Extras (lb 5, w 14) 19
Total (9 wkts, 49 overs) 257

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0, 2-2, 3-12, 4-12, 5-129, 6-149, 7-200, 8-219, 9-253.

BOWLING: Gough 2.2-1-4-2; Adams 8-1-21-2; Napier 5.4-3-34-0; Bopara 6-0-45-2; ten Doeschate 7-0-44-1; G W Flower 10-0-61-0; Middlebrook 10-0-43-1.

ESSEX

A N Cook c Crawley b Ervine 11
*R C Irani c Mascarenhas b Taylor 41
G W Flower c Bruce b Udal 28
A Flower run out 49
R S Bopara b Thornely 54
R N ten Doeschate lbw b Udal 19
J S Foster c Udal b Thornely 15
J D Middlebrook st Pothas b Warne 3
A R Adams lbw b Warne 0
G R Napier c Warne b Thornely 3
D Gough not out 7
Extras (b 5, lb 7, w 5, nb 2) 19
Total (48.3 overs) 249

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-20, 2-84, 3-85, 4-180, 5-215, 6-223, 7-226, 8-226, 9-235.

BOWLING: Bruce 7-0-35-0; Ervine 4-1-17-1; Taylor 10-0-31-1; Mascarenhas 6-0-35-0; Udal 9-1-50-2; Warne 10-0-52-2; Thornely 2.3-0-17-3.

Umpires: G I Burgess and I J Gould.