its head to head sudden death

KP - ever in the spotlight.

Hold on to your ear muffs. It's going to be a little noisy out there. And I don't mean in the party stands.

With all due respect to the newly ICC-approved Irish, in a week made up of mostly dead matches, thank goodness the sporting Gods and the crazy schedulers have come up with something to relish, even if it is by default.

England's clash with South Africa in Barbados has all the ingredients a knockout match needs. Whoever goes down will not be getting up again. At last, after more than a month, its head to head sudden death.

Two essentially glass-jawed teams, some huge egos and a corrosive rivalry add up to a potent mix. With no real expectations placed upon their shoulders, England are playing with the faintest of heartbeats and no discernible pulse. The South Africans were not supposed to be on the edge. They have carried the weight of being the number one limited overs team so heavily, that they have given it away to someone else.

The question is not who will bat or bowl first, but who will break first. Victory may swap hands a few times before we know for certain who has the balls to finish the job.

The "previous" between Kevin Pietersen and Graeme Smith has run like a live wire through the pre-match build-up and the veins of England's premier batsman. A good story needs a great plot and by Saint George, you can always rely on KP to deliver on that one.

This is how the heavily edited story goes (sarcasm aside): Critical of the quota system in South Africa where inferior players delayed his inevitable rise to greatness, KP decides to uproot and head for Nottinghamshire to further his career ambitions of being the best batsman this side of Sherwood Forest. Smith says Pietersen has turned his back on his country. Cold War breaks out between the two, and although 'hellos' are exchanged at the Champions Trophy, the signs are that this does not represent an entente cordiale.

What's absolutely certain is that there will be more than the odd hello out in the middle. Michael Vaughan's team were warned by the umpires for some, shall we say, impure language during the defeat against Sri Lanka. When Smith walks out to bat, you would expect less than ringing endorsements coming from the mouths of certain England players. After all, Paul Collingwood recently claimed that he should have sledged Warney more during the Ashes...Is that possible?

Mark Boucher, possibly the only living person to describe Australian batsmen as 'rejects', might join in the fun with the odd jibe. If it is directed at Pietersen, that might just be a mistake, considering last time he played one-day cricket against the Proteas and the vitriolic crowd, he cracked three brilliant centuries. "It's good fun, but it gets the red mist going and makes me fight even harder. I'm sure we can be victorious." Pietersen is up for this alright.

If that wasn't enough material, Andre Nel can usually be relied upon to pour a gallon of lighter fuel on a smouldering barbecue. Obscene language and in your face sledging is pretty much his forte, especially when Adam Gilchrist hit him for 22 in an over during the Durban Test match in March 2006.

Described by his captain as a "bit of a nutter with white line fever", the fast bowler from Gauteng scowls, sledges, and snarls almost to the point of no return. Ominously for England, he might be a little upset tomorrow about one or two things that have happened in the past.

"I do sometimes take it too far but you only get one chance, you don't want to give it away, you want to do it so badly. It's all part and parcel of the way we have been brought up, of our history and culture. We had a tough time with the Zulus and the British."

South Africa and England haven't crossed swords for two years. It's a hell of a time to meet again.

Tim Ellis