I think Pietersen caught that ball - but just for this reason.
For the last few years fielders have been chucking the ball in the air as soon as it comes to hand IMO cheating in a way, because no one would ever Know if they would have dropped the ball or not, Pietersen only did the same.

His going over the rope IMO is only a side issue.
EDIT: I am sure Pietersen held onto that ball for 4 if not five steps, how could it have been a drop?.

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Ern

Same old England, could really have predicted what went on before the match. Getting really sick of the England side and management stuck in their poor, outdated ways. They don't move with the times, teams are scoring 270+ on regular occasions and that's something we just aren't able to do. Nor do we have a plan B, nevermind C.

All of them bar Pietersen should be made to take the trip home on pedalos.

Todays ODI batsmen need to look at Ricky Ponting
When he is batting Ricky never compramises innings momentum for personal milestones
Ricky's 86 from 106 balls after a slow start the big difference between his and Pietersens innings was that Kevins 104 off 122 balls was after a fast start momentum did get sacrificed for a personal statistic (a century) in Pietersens case.
Of notable improvement Ian Bell only 40 dot balls today, what a bit of encouragement does. Still a bit of work needed to catch Ricky Ponting's 20 though.

I can't accept this premiss. It should be kept in mind that we were losing wickets fairly regularly after Bell went, oz were not. Also remember after the SL defeat Pietersen was absolutely pillorried by his critics for giving it away when he should have batted through in a more circumspect fashion. When he does that people get on his back for that too!! His critics really should make up their minds. Also Ponting is playing in a winning side; because oz are so rarely behind in these competitions its hard to say how Ponting would perform if his team were losing. When was the last time oz were in danger in a one day comp? Oh yes, 1-0 down in the cb series finals, Ponting had even less than 20 dot balls that day didn't he?

Ponting saves his nation's ass more often than not. The man is IMO the best batsmen in both forms of the game. Pietersen would do well to be uttered in the same breath as Ricky.

England can blame 3 things on their failure to get a result today...

1) Naive Batting -

letting us slip from 161-2 to go all out for 247. I said before the game that if we could post 270+ score, we would win the game. 247 is not a competitive score considering England's defensive bowling. Our batting side needs to switch on. Bell, Pieterson, Bopara made it into double figure. All we needed was another 20-30 run contributuion from 2 other batters and we would have posted 270+ but we have too many players on low form. I think Duncum Fletcher has little choice now. Play Vaughan at No. 6, move Freddie up to No.2 and hope freddie can smash a good 30 run innings off a low amount of balls in the powerplays. Or likewise with Bopara...

2) Sajid Mahmood + Panesar -

Mahmood needs to learn to bowl straight whilst Panesar isn't effective enough. Mahmood bowled poor. I think when the Aussies were about 132-2, Mahmood comes on. At this time, the run rate is slowly climbing for the aussies thanks to pressure from Flintoff, Anderson and Collingwood. What does he do? Bowl 2 sloppy balls and a wide not to forget a forgettable misfield by strauss to make it 11 runs of the over and put Australia in command. As for Panesar, despite an impressive start, he hasn't really got anything against Australia and Sri Lanka. He was too easy to hit around for singles. He needs to learn of Daniel Vettori and vary his pace and line a bit and he might start being effective.

3) Class of Australia -

Today, Australia had total control for75% of the match. 2 early wickets. Then they went behind as England looked to pile up a possible 270-300 runs...Good captaincy and bowling (Not to mention some good fielding) helped break the partnership between Bell and Pieterson and restrict England to under 250, which was a huge advantage considering at 1 point England looked on to get over 300 runs. Then the batting. Although Gilly and Hayden failed to make half-centuries, they added a useful 50 partnership to add pressure and keep the run rate going. onting, with help ffrom Clarke and Symonds did the rest with some brilliant batting. England looked to have Australia under a bit of pressure, but sloppy bowling and good batting resulted in a comfortable win for Australia.

Pontings usualy in a winning side because he is in the side, if you could buy and trade cricket players to teams like football players I have no doubt he would be the David Beckam of cricket.

As for Pietersens critics unfortunately to many of them are former English players who unlike former Australian players do not have a history of winners. In particular World Cups.

Criticism carries a fair bit more weight when its being delivered by Allan Border, Shane Warne, Mark Waugh or Dean Jones rather than by past world cup flops like Mike Atherton, Nasser Hussien, Alec Stewart, Geoff Boycott or any other English critic.

Sorry, david beckham is a pretty boy who can only take free kicks.


Ponting is the Ronaldinho of cricket....

Well the England soccer side have not really done that well sinse he was dropped, in fact the present England soccer side is on a par with this England cricket world Cup side.

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Ern

The England football team weren't doing particularly well while Beckham remained the captain, either. Beckham has an excellent work rate, and his crossing abilities are second to none. However that is where the talent ends, unfortunatly. I can assure you that if he was not the marketing dream he is, Madrid and L.A Galaxy would never have invested so much money in him.