Cricket World Cup 2011: bowling attack holds the key to winning the World Cup, says Kevin Pietersen

Hard at work: Kevin Pietersen says England's skills have improved dramatically over the past year Photo: GETTY IMAGES

With the Ashes urn sitting alongside the World Twenty20 prize, Pietersen’s next wish is to reach the pinnacle of the 50-over format in Mumbai in April.

While England’s form has been patchy in the one-day series against Australia, Pietersen expects that to change when the first-choice bowling line-up of James Anderson, Stuart Broad (stomach injury), Tim Bresnan (calf) and Graeme Swann (knee and back) reunites for the World Cup. The squad’s rise over the year has convinced Pietersen that England are capable of winning the event for the first time.

“The batsmen have improved, the fielding is top notch, our catching is incredible and our bowling is so skilful,” Pietersen said in Brisbane. “We’ve shown Australia up in a huge way, with the difference in our bowling attack to their bowling attack this summer, with reverse swing and the skill at which we’ve gone about our business. Our skill levels are really, really good.”

England have reached the finals of three World Cups but the closest they came to winning was in 1987, when Australia beat them by seven runs at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. However, this outfit is conditioned to breaking down barriers, having collected the Twenty20 trophy in the West Indies last year and then raised the urn in Australia for the first time in 24 years.

“The team has been amazing through the last 12 months, winning in the Caribbean, winning the Ashes, winning on Australia Day [in Adelaide] the other day was magnificent for us,” Pietersen said. “To cap off the 12 months with a 50-over World Cup would be pretty surreal. The boys are absolutely buzzing for it.”

The series in Australia is England’s last official on-field engagement before their hectic schedule turns them home for three days. They then head to Bangladesh for a couple of warm-up matches and the opening exchanges of the World Cup.

Players who have been with the squad since November have started to feel flat and a mixture of fatigue and a post-Ashes hangover contributed to the slow start to the limited-overs campaign. Life in the subcontinent will be even more hectic as the sides that reach the final in Mumbai face more than six weeks of navigating through Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and India.

“Our schedule is ridiculous going into this World Cup,” Pietersen said. “It has been for England teams for a very long time. And that’s probably why England have not done well in World Cups.” The proximity of the Ashes tour and the World Cup, which both traditionally run in a four-year cycle, was a major reason for the unusual scheduling of back-to-back Australia-England Test series in 2013-14.

England’s exact World Cup itinerary is currently unclear after the stadium at Eden Gardens, which was due to host the match against India on February 27, was ruled unsuitable to host such an important encounter. “That was the huge game for us, for everybody,” Pietersen said. “So, yes, it’s disappointing, but it might work to our advantage playing at a ground where there’s not 120,000 [spectators] but 50,000.”

Whatever happens to England during the World Cup, Pietersen will be returning to India after the tournament. He was signed for US$650,000 by the Deccan Chargers IPL side this month, a fee which was less than half his US$1.55million price from Bangalore in 2009. The new value ranks him below his team-mates Dale Steyn, Cameron White, Daniel Christian and Kumar Sangakkara.

“It’s not a mere $650,000,” Pietersen said. “I’ve always said whatever you get in the IPL is an absolute bonus. We’re fortunate enough to have five weeks, and who earns that kind of money in five weeks? Nobody, unless you’re Rooney or Lampard or Ronaldo or John Terry. You look at it and just say, ‘We’re very fortunate’.” Despite his complaints about England’s draining schedule, Pietersen had no second thoughts about rejoining the IPL, preferring to cash-in rather than rest or play county cricket ahead of the international home summer.

“You’d be a fool not to put your name into the hat,” he said.

“All the England lads put their name in the hat for this IPL because you never know what’s round the corner. You want to potentially earn as much as you can earn, as well as making as many friends as you can along the way.”

Pietersen also faces a different Indian experience after admitting he didn’t know where the Deccan franchise was based. He will be spending most of his time in the information technology hub of Hyderabad, which could be valuable after his latest online misadventure.

He was furious that the winning bid of his Twitter auction to support Queensland’s flood victims was a fake. Initially Pietersen was hugely satisfied to learn his prize of a trip to Perth for the final one-day international against Australia next Sunday (Feb 6) had sold for £31,800.

When the winner was contacted he claimed his account had been broken into, leaving Pietersen hacked off. “It is so frustrating and disappointing that somebody can do that,” he said. “It’s as low as it gets, like looting a store after it’s been flooded.” Pietersen was left hoping one of the other bidders would make another offer in time to fly to the game. “I could only do what I’ve done,” he said. “I haven’t done absolutely anything to warrant this kind of thing.” The fourth one-day international in Brisbane turned into a fund-raiser for those affected by the devastating floods a fortnight ago, which killed 22 people and caused £2.5 billion of damage. Pietersen said the quick clean-up of the city — “it doesn’t look like anything has happened” — was “absolutely incredible”.

Australia’s players visited schools around Brisbane on Friday that were affected by the disaster and Michael Clarke, Australia’s captain, said the scene put his glamorous life in perspective. “We’ve seen so many houses where the actual structure was still there but the whole inside was destroyed, empty,” he said. “It was a little bit like a ghost town.”

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Cricket World Cup 2011: Asia pace will test Jonathan Trott's staying power

Setting the pace: Jonathan Trott may struggle against spinners and medium-pacers on the subcontinental pitches Photo: AFP

You can face the same sort of delivery that Harold Larwood would have bowled without exhuming him. But one thing that cannot be done is to make Jonathan Trott face his own bowling on a slow pitch in Asia.

And that is what England would like to do before the World Cup: to see how Trott would bat without any pace on the ball, when delivered by a spinner or a medium-pacer like himself.

He can bat through an innings, like nobody else in this fatigued England side; he can bat until the cows come home. But could he force the pace at the knock-out stage of the World Cup?

England would never dream of going into a one-day tournament with a settled XI, but whereas in previous World Cups this has been because some of England’s one-day batsmen have been so unproductive they have had to be dropped, this time it is because Trott has made an irresistible case.

He has stopped England being dismissed in less than 50 overs by Australia, and therefore he cannot be dropped, even though those suspicions remain.

It would be so convenient if Trott can grow into the No3 position, rapidly, as a batting all-rounder.

For although he hasn’t bowled on this interminable tour until now, Trott has plenty of experience of one-day bowling and was cheerfully doing the job at the death for Warwickshire when he forced his way into the England Test side and had more urgent matters.

If he and Paul Collingwood can be relied on for 10 overs between them, every time, England will bat deep and only have to pick four bowlers out of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Tim Bresnan, Graeme Swann and Mike Yardy.

When there is pace on the ball, Trott is fine, working all the angles on the leg side. But when he has to put pace on the ball, the options are limited.

He doesn’t do sixes: six-hour vigils, yes, but not sixes over the rope. He has yet to hit his first in Test or one-day internationals, although the slog-sweep that he unleashed during his Adelaide century could be the portent of one.

But it was when David Hussey came on with his part-time offbreaks that we had an earnest of what might await in the World Cup: not in the qualifiers against Netherlands and their like, or even against India wherever that qualifier might be staged now that Kolkata’s Eden Gardens has been stripped of its plum fixture — and (don’t forget the politics) the president of the local association taken down a few pegs.

But in a semi-final against a team packed with spinners on a turning pitch, all of England’s top three of Andrew Strauss, Matt Prior and Trott are going to labour without pace on the ball.

Even though he had posted his hundred, Trott at Adelaide failed to get a single one of Hussey’s four offbreaks off the square and chopped on the last of them.

As with all batsmen, there is one thing that cannot be coached once he has passed his teens: the ability to run down the pitch at spinners with certainty. This has to be programmed in from an early age, and is with Asian batsmen, as a rule, but not those from England and the southern hemisphere.

If England’s top order are bogged down by spin in the World Cup, the truth is that only Kevin Pietersen can bale them out. And the trouble there is that Trott and Pietersen have no history of partnerships together; two men from similar backgrounds have been like poles repulsing so far.

Their only major partnership to date ended with the poles at the same end and Pietersen run out in the Centurion Test, which England only just saved thereafter.

Trott is so absorbed in batting through an innings that ‘calling’ sometimes seems to be a distraction. But at least this is an excess of what has nowadays become a rare virtue.

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Andrew Strauss admits batting has to improve for World Cup after defeat to Australia in one-day series

Work to be done: Andrew Strauss is aware that England have to imporve their batting ahead of the World Cup after another defeat to Australia Photo: EPA

The tourists won the Ashes in emphatic style but have failed to reproduce that form in the shorter format, slipping to a decisive 4-1 deficit in the seven-match series after a 51-run loss in Brisbane today.

A string of poor totals with the bat has been at the heart of Strauss' side's failings, and he said: ''We're very disappointed with how we've played as a batting group. There's been a lot of talking but talking doesn't bring results - guys have to bring it to the middle.

''We want the guys to play positively, We've got the World Cup coming up and I'd hate to see guys go into their shells but it's decision-making - when is the right time to attack and the right time to defend - and we haven't done that well enough. The reasons for that, I'm not sure.

''We've played very badly, we could have won the first two games and probably should. We haven't played smart cricket.

''We've got two games to get momentum for the World Cup.''

Young all-rounder Chris Woakes provided a rare bright spot on the day with six for 45, the best ODI figures by an England bowler on foreign soil, and Strauss continued: ''He obviously showed talent and it shows the future's bright for us.''

Woakes himself added: ''I was pleased with my performance with the ball, it was one of those days when it seemed to go my way, but it would have been sweeter if I was on the winning side.

''I'm pleased with my own performance but it's just a shame we're out of the series.''

Australia skipper Michael Clarke, whose 54 out of Australia's 249 all out was the top score of the match, said: ''I'm excited to contribute, it's been a while since I made 50.

''To win the series is fantastic, the boys are stoked.

''I thought when I got out that if we could scratch out 230 or 240 we were in with a chance, I thought 249 was a pretty good score.

''Everybody contributed, a few guys got starts with the bat and guys chipped in with two wickets.''

The match also saw another significant amount of money raised for the flood relief effort in the surrounding Queensland area and Clarke concluded: ''That's the most important thing really, the turnout today was fantastic.

''The game of cricket has raised so much money. England have been fantastic too, they've donated a few things.''

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Sean Ervine stays at Hampshire after Zimbabwe World Cup about-turn

No change: Zimbabwean all-rounder Sean Ervine is staying at Hampshire after rejecting the chance to play at the Word Cup Photo: GETTY IMAGES

The all-rounder was named in his country’s preliminary 30-man squad and, having agreed to return to the international fold following his retirement in 2004, was then selected in the final party of 15.

That would have rendered the 28 year-old an overseas player for county cricket purposes and spelled the end of his career at the Rose Bowl, where he has been a key figure in recent years – including during last season’s victorious Friends Provident t20 campaign.

Now, having had time to consider the impact on his personal and professional life, Ervine has opted to withdraw from the Zimbabwe squad in favour of returning to Hampshire.

The decision means he will almost certainly not add to his international record of five Tests and 42 one-day internationals.

Ervine said: “After having had time to reflect on all of the circumstances, I have realised that this is not the right time to leave Hampshire.

“I have a great relationship with this club and its supporters and I feel like part of a family. Hampshire is my home, so much so that I am planning to get married there next year. I do not, therefore, want to be away for long periods of time.”

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England in Australia: Paul Collingwood down but not out as he eyes World Cup salvation

He has not entered so low in the one-day side since 2005 and the past month of demotions indicates the 34 year-old’s strength is weakening.

While he remains the Twenty20 captain, he left before being pushed from the Test side after managing only 83 runs in the Ashes, and is now battling for time in the format he has been most suited to.

In England’s current state, whenever they require another specialist bowler - they relied on three front-line seamers in Adelaide - Collingwood will be the most vulnerable batsman.

“Is the writing on the wall? Is that what you’re trying to say?” he said. “We will have to see what conditions are like. I’m desperate to get in the side, like every other batsman. It will be interesting to see what combination they go with.”

The long-awaited Ashes success in Australia has made this slump easier to deal with for Collingwood, who failed to make a significant impact on the Test series.

“Of course you get down, this is your job,” he said after the side landed here for Sunday’s fifth one-day international.

“You feel you are letting your team-mates down. It doesn’t only affect you, it affects your family, because there is a lot of pressure on what we do, but the older you get the more you try to keep things in perspective.”

By his count, he has had four “horrible bad runs of form” at international level and this trough is mild compared with his state of mind during the tour here in 2006-07.

Being bowled by a straight ball from Xavier Doherty in Sydney on Sunday was nowhere near as deflating as his dismissal to Andrew Symonds in Adelaide four years ago.

“I plinked it to mid-off trying to hit it over the top and I remember literally sitting in the locker - in it - just nearly in tears,” he said. He had scratched three off 17 balls in that one-day international before England were dismissed for 110, adding to their despair after suffering an Ashes whitewash.

“There have been plenty of low points along the way,” he said. “It was ridiculous [in 2006-07]. I went from that point thinking, ‘I can’t even bat any more’, to getting man-of-the-match awards. It can change quickly.”

Four years later he is hoping the encouraging display in Adelaide - “It was good to get past 20, I haven’t done that in a while” – will be the start of another run of success. England would welcome the improvement from one of their previously major influences as they attempt to claw back a 3-1 deficit.

“It’s so frustrating not being in good form,” he said. “But I honestly think it is just around the corner, so hopefully [Wednesday] was the spark that I needed.”

His bowling is often valuable and he showed his effectiveness on the sluggish Adelaide pitch that should be similar to the surfaces on offer during the World Cup. He is also versatile enough to deliver seam up or cutters, the more likely method for success in the subcontinent.

On Wednesday he bowled Michael Clarke with one angling in, finishing with one for 22 off seven overs before leaving the ground with stomach cramps. He could be a threat at the Gabba as the fifth bowler in humid conditions, especially in the evening when the ball swings sharply.

“It’s important [to have a second string], I want to contribute, want to win games for England,” he said. “It’s a great way to take the pressure off in many ways from your batting. But ultimately my role in the side is to score runs and that’s what I want to get back to.”

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Cricket World Cup 2011: fans in uproar as India v England clash is switched at the 11th hour

The venue is one of the game’s greatest, and Gullivers Sports Travel had organised a five-day trip for England fans just for that match.

Cricinfo call Eden Gardens 'cricket’s answer to the Coliseum’, and it has housed 90,000 fans. England’s appearances there are rare. The last Test they played there was in 1993, and it is nine years since they appeared in a one-day international.

An alternative venue, likely to be Bangalore, is being pursued by the Board of Control for Cricket in India.

“Regrettably, Eden Gardens has not made sufficient progress to justify the level of confidence required to confirm that the venue would be ready in good time,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said. “It is absolutely necessary.”

The ICC was unable to confirm if three other matches scheduled for Eden Gardens — South Africa v Ireland on March 15, Ireland v Holland on March 18, and Kenya v Zimbabwe two days later – would remain at the venue.

Lancashire are to announce a record loss for a county as a delay over a major redevelopment of Old Trafford threatens its Test future.

The projected losses are believed to be around £2?million, four times the deficit they posted in 2009.

The absence of an Ashes Test was blamed for Lancashire’s £546,000 loss in their last accounts. This time professional fees of £1.5 million have worsened their plight. “It will be comfortably the biggest loss we have ever made,” said chief executive Jim Cumbes. “In fact, it will probably be the biggest loss any county club has made in the history of the game.”

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