The England number four blazed a memorable 151 to put the tourists firmly in charge of the second Test against Sri Lanka as they finished day three with a lead of 185.

Pietersen had averaged 12.50 in his eight Test innings this winter, with his biggest score prior to his latest knock just 32.

However, he put the record straight in emphatic style and then explained that he had always felt a big score was just around the corner.

"It's the hard work that's been put in, the hours with Mushy (Mushtaq Ahmed) in the nets that's paid off," he told Sky Sports.

"I feel, well certainly in the last one-day series in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and going into this Test series, in fantastic form, so it was just a case of cashing in when you're in good nick.

"The amount of cricket we play now, it doesn't matter whether you play Test matches or one-days they just roll into each other, it's just a different approach.

"I probably played a bit one-day mode-ish today, but I feel in pretty good nick at the moment and I'm just going to continue hitting the ball, why not?"

Not pre-planned

Pietersen's blistering innings came off just 165 balls and asked whether he had intended from the off to score so rapidly, he continued: "Not pre-panned, not at all.

"I just feel like I'm in very good form at the moment and when I'm in form I like to cash in.

"I'm also a very big sweater, so a quick game's a good game! I couldn't have blocked out all those balls and got 50 or 60, it just wouldn't have worked for me. The key today for me and the team was to go out there and score runs."

The right-hander, who plundered six sixes and 16 fours, was particularly brutal on Sri Lanka's spinners and felt the tactic had reaped its rewards.

"When you take on spinners they bowl differently, so when you look to get after them they definitely bowl a lot of bad balls, a lot more bad balls," he said.

"I think our bowling attack is pretty good so I think we've got ourselves into a very good position in the Test match, although the last session we may have let ourselves down.

"But they've got some fantastic batsmen in their team and the wicket's not horrendous, you can play on that wicket, so we'll have to bowl well."

Pietersen's knock was not without controversy, though, and his repeated use of the 'switch-hit' appeared to irk the Sri Lankans, especially Tillakaratne Dilshan, who pulled up in his delivery stride more than once.

The England batsman was eventually handed a warning by the umpire Asad Rauf, but insists there was no great friction out in the middle.

"No altercation at all," he added. "I was just finding out what it was and he (the umpire) was telling me what it was, no dramas. It was just timing, no drama at all, no issue."

Umpire Bruce Oxenford explained afterwards: "The ICC think switch-hitting is an excellent innovation.

"But when the bowler sees intent (in the batsman altering his stance) prior to delivering the ball and stops what can happen is we can get a stalemate situation... the bowler won't deliver because he wants to change his field if he thinks the batsman is going to switch-hit.

"When we get to that situation the way to move forward is to give the batsman an informal warning, then a formal one for time-wasting.

"If it happens again it's a team warning under time-wasting by the batting side and it's an automatic five-run penalty."