Pietersen backs England to re-create history and pile pressure on Australia
Kevin Pietersen is backing his England players to make history at Cardiff today while climbing to second in the one-day world rankings.
England began the series back in sixth place but have propelled to third thanks to four straight victories over South Africa.
Victory at Cardiff today will not only see Pietersen’s men leapfrog the Proteas into second place behind Australia, but it will also complete a first-ever one-day series whitewash against a major Test-playing nation.
“I’m sure the boys will be up for it – it’s a big target to reach second in the world,” Pietersen said. “I want them to play with no fear, just go out there and enjoy themselves”.
Playing at the newly-built Swalec Stadium in Cardiff for the first time, England are expected to field an unchanged team from the one which triumphed by seven wickets in the fourth one-day international at Lord’s on Sunday.
That win at Lord’s maintained England’s 100 per cent record with Pietersen as captain and opener Ian Bell is confident the tide has turned.
“In times gone by we’ve gone 1-0 up in a series and played fantastic first games but not backed it up with consistent performances,” Bell said. “Hopefully this is a corner we’ve turned and we can start doing it far more consistently.
“Kev (Pietersen) sat down with us before the series started and gave us an honest chat about where he thought we were as a team. The one thing he has tried to mark on everyone is that we have to have consistency and everyone has bought into that.”
Meanwhile, South African spinner Johan Botha says England are fast closing on Australia at the top of the world rankings.
“They have got the best bowling attack at the moment in one-day cricket,” he admitted.