Kevin Pietersen, the former England batsman, reckons if Ricky Ponting was there in the dugout of Delhi Capitals last night, the drama that unfolded during the last over of the game, with the captain Rishabh Pant calling his players back over an umpiring decision, wouldn’t have unfolded that way.
What happened was that Delhi Capitals needed 6 sixes in the last over of the game to win and while it’s considered an almost impossible equation, the Delhi finisher Rovman Powell was able to hit the first three balls of the over out of the ground and raised the hopes of a very unlikely Delhi victory.
Rishabh Pant wanted the third ball of the last over to be called a no ball
However, the cause of the drama was that the third ball that Powell hit for six was a high fulltoss and Rishabh Pant and the other players in the Delhi Capitals dugout thought that it was actually a no ball. If a no ball was given at that point of time, the equation would have come down from 18 off 3 to 17 off 4 with Delhi Capitals having a free hit as well.
But, despite repeated demands of Delhi Capitals’ players and their captain Rishabh Pant, the on-field umpires didn’t go upstairs to re-check that, because a waist high full toss can only be checked upstairs if the batsman is dismissed off that delivery.
Since Powell was not dismissed and he had hit that for six and the square leg umpire didn’t signal a no ball from what he saw in the first go, it couldn’t have gone upstairs later according to the current rule. But, Delhi Capitals players were adamant for the umpires to go upstairs.
Kevin Pietersen was not happy with the behavior of the Delhi Capitals players at all, particularly with the behavior of their captain as well as the coach Pravin Amre, who ran onto the ground to convey something to the on-field umpires.
Pietersen insisted that it’s a gentleman’s game and coaches or anyone can’t be running onto the ground to show dissent to the umpires like that.
