Pietersen salutes 'magnificent' Bell

LONDON: Kevin Pietersen praised Ian Bell after they both made big hundreds to leave England in control of the fourth and final Test against India at The Oval here on Friday.

England, bidding for a 4-0 whitewash, ended the second day on 457 for three with Bell 181 not out after Pietersen had fallen for 175.

The pair put on exactly 350, England's seventh-highest Test partnership of all-time and their best against India -- the team they replaced as the world's best Test side when they went top of the ICC rankings with an innings and 242 run victory at Edgbaston last week.

This was Bell's fifth century in 11 Test innings and 16th in total.

The 29-year-old Warwickshire right-hander, once hailed as the best young batsman in England, struggled early in his Test career and there were doubts as to whether he had the mental resolve to succeed at the highest level.

But now he is making the scores worthy of his undoubted talent and Pietersen told reporters: "Belly's been magnificent over the last 12-18 months, he's grown as a person, he's matured so much.

"I love the fact he's scoring runs so fluently. He's so pleasing on the eye when he's batting," the former England captain added.

Pietersen's 19th Test hundred left him just three adrift of the England record of 22, shared by Walter Hammond, Colin Cowdrey and Geoffrey Boycott.

"It would be nice to get a record, but I think there are a lot of players in this team who are going to get more than 22 hundreds," said the 32-year-old South Africa-born Pietersen.

"It's not a competition, it's just a case of winning games for England."

Meanwhile India seamer Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, who at times demonstrated more aggression in his verbal spats with Pietersen than he did with the ball, was pleased by the way the tourists dismissed England openers Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss early Friday after a lacklustre first day performance.

"At the start of the day we wanted to get back the pride, that was the concern more than the ranking.

"There will be pain here and there but you can't really complain otherwise you wouldn't do this job," added Sreesanth, who ended the day with one for 95 from 23 overs.

"You can't expect 83 all out, 150 all out or 230 all out in every single match, that's why a Test is called a Test: it's a test of character and a test of strength."

Pietersen, who now plays for Oval-based Surrey, said he expected conditions to favour the bowlers during the rest of the match.

"There's lots of swing, lots of seam, and it's going to spin miles."

As for the prospect of completing a clean sweep Pietersen, a member of the England side routed 5-0 by Australia during the 2006/07 Ashes, said: "I've been on the receiving end of a whitewash but it's not for us to worry about what's happening in the Indian rooms.

"It's for us to make sure we win the first hour tomorrow (Saturday) and over the next three days get 20 Indian wickets."

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011