Pietersen's loss

         It is very difficult for any team to replace a player of that stature," TA Sekar, the Daredevils' team director TA Sekar, said. "He was encouraging the youngsters, taking a lot of initiatives, talking in team meetings, and was a positive influence. He had a good rapport with Viru and gelled well easily into the team.Pietersen's popularity in the IPL is a contrast to his standing in England which plummeted following his stand-off with the ECB and a section of the England team last year. In England, Pietersen continues to be an outsider despite playing for the country, but in India he has been embraced much more easily, perhaps because the Indian fans love a character who performs.Last year, the Daredevils had come close to making the IPL finals in 2012, but lost in a close match in the second qualification game (play-off) against eventual runners-up Chennai Super Kings. Daredevils had topped the points table at the end of the league phase and Pietersen had played a key role in their progress in the eight matches he played - Pietersen scored 305 runs including a century (a victorious 103 against Deccan Chargers), the third-best figures for his team in terms of runs behind his captain Virender Sehwag and narrowly behind the Mahela Jayawardene. Well groomed and a natural entertainer, Pietersen, Mathur said, was a "hit" with the corporates, too. "The sponsors would want him at promotions or any such event. He speaks well, he is polite, he is very good with corporate heads. So he is exactly what a commercial franchise-based entity requires: somebody who is hot on the field and equally good off the field.