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Saturday Mar 22 2008 12:17

England saviour Kevin Pietersen has backed his team-mates to contribute in the second innings of the crucial third Test against New Zealand.

Pietersen made 129 of England's meagre total of 240-7 on day one in Napier, with bowler Stuart Broad the only other major contributor.

Afterwards, Pietersen told BBC Sport: "I'm sure someone is going to cop a couple of months of real good England batting performances."

"These guys put in the hard work and they will get rewarded. Today was my reward.

"Hopefully in our second innings one or two of the other guys go and get a big hundred as well.

"The harder you work they say the luckier you get, but I believe in the cycle of life, if you keep putting in you're going to get rewarded.

"It was a difficult morning, a difficult afternoon and proved a pretty difficult evening session as well.

"It was pretty difficult to start off with this morning, the ball swung and seamed and the wicket wasn't as flat as it looked."