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Cricket

Pietersen shrugs off pressure ahead of $20m showdown

01/11/2008

England captain Kevin Pietersen claims he and his players are relaxed ahead of their Twenty20 match against the Stanford Superstars that could earn them $20 million (£12.4 million).

Pietersen says because they are away from any media headlines and can benefit from the island lifestyle in Antigua the players have had a stress-free build up to the match.

He said: "At the moment, in terms of pressure, I don't actually feel anything; I try my hardest not to in big circumstances and I have my ways and means of getting rid of it."

Pietersen says there has been a relaxed atmosphere within the England camp all week, despite the big-money match getting ever-closer.

He said: "When you get back from training you have lunch and jump in the pool."

Although Pietersen has emphasised England's relaxed approach to the match he did reveal they have been practising different scenarios for the final over of the match.

If England are fielding during the final over of the match Pietersen says there will not be a huge delay while he tries to figure out what to do.

"We have been discussing, if they need one run off the last ball, what field we would set and all the guys were involved," Pietersen added.

"Then we practised one off the last ball, two off the last ball and three off the last ball, so we've got a plan now, so it will not be me standing with the bowler for 20 minutes."

England will play tonight's game with two spinners due to the slow nature of the pitch. James Anderson was left out of the side announced yesterday to take on the Superstars.

Ryan Sidebottom, Alastair Cook and Ravi Bopara also miss out but the squad players will share $1 million (£610,000) between them if England win.