England's Jonathan Trott tells Kevin Pietersen to ignore mind games

Jonathan Trott, bolstered by a Test average second only to Don Bradman after his double hundred against Sri Lanka at the Swalec Stadium, has advised Kevin Pietersen to ignore the hype after his torment against left-arm spin showed no signs of abating. The statistic is enough to give Pietersen sleepless nights: 19 of his past 61 dismissals in Test cricket have come against left-arm spin since New Zealand's Daniel Vettori became the first bowler of this type to claim his wicket in Hamilton. To add weight to the statistic, until Vettori dismissed him in his 34th Test the only left-arm spinners he had faced in Test cricket had been two part-time bowlers – Australia's Michael Clarke in Adelaide in 2006 and Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya the following year. Trott, the most methodical, remorseless run-maker in world cricket, is not one to over-complicate matters. His advice to Pietersen, he said, was thus: "The best thing is not to worry about a lot of the factors to do with left-arm spin and just go out and play. You can think about the game too much. "You can over hype things. It's a very simple game. Theory-wise, there is a ball and a bat, and you go out and hit it. That's all I try and do. Sometimes we over-complicate it and we are our own worst enemies. For me it's about being really simple and not doing things outside my bubble." Trott was Pietersen's batting partner when he fell lbw to Rangana Herath, the ball staying wickedly low and just striking his pad before the bat; Billy Doctrove's initial not-out ruling was overturned by a successful Sri Lanka review. "On the big screen I thought he might have squeezed the ball with bat then pad, and he thought that himself, but we couldn't really tell from the middle," Trott said. "We weren't shocked by the decision but we thought it would probably go the other way. It kept a bit low as well, so he was unlucky from that point of view. "Sometimes things don't go your way. Kev is still averaging over 48 in Test cricket and he is still a special talent." Trott's remorseless progress brought him 203 in eight and a half hours before he was bowled by Sri Lanka's captain, Tillakaratne Dilshan. England lead by 91 runs with five wickets and a day remaining. His Test record looks more phenomenal with each Test, although it attracted some criticism from Geoffrey Boycott, on Test Match Special, for his rate of scoring. "To get a double hundred is great but to get us to a position where the guys can kick on tomorrow is just as important as the stat," Trott said. "It's obviously very pleasing the way it's gone in the last 12 months or so but that's in the past. You have to work hard to earn the right to score runs. "I have just gone about my business. The wicket is quite tennis-bally so there were a few good deliveries flying around. The wagon stat came up on the scoreboard and we haven't scored many runs down the ground. That is always an indication that the ball isn't really coming on. "It's not really a wicket where you can go out and time the ball except against the new ball. I haven't felt in that good a nick for Warwickshire. It hasn't been easy. Hopefully the Welsh weather can smile on us." Fat chance. Rain is forecast again in the morning.