Kevin Pietersen ended the most memorable week of his life by being named player of the tournament as England won their first ICC one-day event.
Six days on from the birth of his baby boy and four days since returning to the squad, Pietersen hit 47 from 31 balls to help England to beat Australia by seven wickets to lift the World Twenty20.
They had lost their previous World Cup finals in 1979, 1987 and 1992 as well as the 2004 Champions Trophy climax, but easily overcame their oldest foe with three overs to spare.
Now they face a difficult wait to find out whether they will be able to fly home as intended this morning or if they will be grounded by the volcanic ash cloud.
Craig Kieswetter, who was born in Johannesburg but qualified to play for England only three months ago, was named man of the match for his 63 from 49 balls, while Pietersen was the tournament’s second-highest scorer with 248 runs.
“It is unbelievable,” Pietersen said. “Incredible. Things do not sink in for a few days and it will probably take some time to realise what has happened. To be able to hold my little boy and have this medal in my hand is very special.”
Pietersen praised his team-mates for helping him through difficult times since losing the captaincy at the beginning of 2009 in a power struggle with Peter Moores, the former coach, and after a serious Achilles injury that curtailed his Ashes series last summer.
“If it was not for the help of the players and coaching staff and management, I would not be here,” Pietersen said. “I remember all the nights in Bangladesh [in March], the dinners with people like Paul Collingwood who gave me the reassurance I needed.”
Collingwood, the captain, said that England deserved all the plaudits that are sure to come their way. “This is a very special moment,” he said. “We turned it on for the big occasion. Not having a World Cup was a monkey on our back and nobody can ever take away what we have achieved.
“I can go right through the team, everybody has contributed at some stage. I think belief has been a huge thing. You can see from the way the guys have gone out from the first ball, believing in themselves and taking it to the opposition and playing a brand of cricket that is unlike England in the past. We will savour this for a couple of days, but good teams kick on. The scary thing is that this team has so much potential.”
Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, acknowledged the brilliance of Pietersen as well as the improvement in England. “It is very good for the game of cricket overall to have Kevin back in form,” Clarke said. “The way England came at us, we were probably 50 runs short. They have a lot of talent. There are match-winners who can take a game on their own. I don’t see why they cannot go on from here. The country loves Twenty20 cricket and they play a lot of it. This is not the Ashes but it is still a big tournament.”
England have little time to rest before the start of a two-Test series against Bangladesh on Thursday week. The ECB will also hope that success in the Caribbean has a knock-on effect in generating interest in the revamped domestic Twenty20, which is due to begin on June 1.
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