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Pietersen puts focus on victory

category: Cricket

27.06.2008 17:26

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Pietersen celebrated his 28th birthday on Friday, 24 hours before he takes the England captaincy reins for the first time as a result of the four-match ban imposed on Collingwood following the team's slow over-rate in Wednesday's match.

If England win, the series will end in a 2-2 draw and Pietersen will be in line to lead the team out again in August against Scotland, and twice against South Africa, the country of his birth.

He said: "Things happen for a reason. I can't control what's happened in the last couple of days but I can control, hopefully, the things that we do tomorrow.

"But the crux of the matter is that it's not about me, it's about the England team making sure that the first part of the summer is a great success.

"[To draw] 2-2 against a fantastic one-day side like New Zealand is going to be a great result for us and that's what we are going to do."



Refusing to be drawn on the significance of him captaining England against South Africa later in the summer, he also played down the run-out controversy of Wednesday.

The incident in which New Zealand's Grant Elliott lost his wicket - while lying injured - left some wondering if England had ridden roughshod over the "spirit of cricket", which all international players are asked to embrace.

Pietersen said: "Hindsight is always the best sight. What's happened has happened and we've taken responsibility for it and Colly has been a great man to come out and apologise.



"We can't get ourselves lured into [focusing on] what happened on Wednesday because if we concentrate on the nonsense that happened on Wednesday, we're not going to concentrate on preparing for the match itself."

New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori once played alongside Pietersen for Nottinghamshire and expects him to rise to the captaincy challenge in typically positive fashion.

"Pietersen obviously has huge shoes to fill but he is the sort of guy who seems to demand that sort of attention.

"From knowing Kevin, and the way he plays his game, I assume he is going to be reasonably aggressive...we are just going to have to sit tight and wait to see how he takes it on," he said.

Original text is here

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