‘You cannot be doing that,’ Pietersen shows scorn at Pant recalling batters

Former England captain Kevin Pietersen criticised Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant for requesting Rovman Powell to return to the dressing room after an on-field judgement went against his team during their IPL 2022 match against Rajasthan Royals.

Powell hammered the first three balls of Obed McCoy’s over for a maximum, lowering the goal to 18 off three balls with 36 required off the last over. However, the third ball of the over was a high full toss, and the Delhi think tank believes they were robbed of a no-ball, which might have provided them with extra cushion heading into the final three balls of the innings.

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The on-field umpires refused to amend their verdict, prompting DC’s assistant coach, Pravin Amre, to enter the field in an attempt to reverse the decision.

Pietersen, a member of the commentary team for host broadcaster Star Sports, went on live to express his thoughts on the situation.

“This is cricket, not football. You cannot be doing that,” the former England captain spoke up when Pant was spotted requesting Powell to return to the dressing room.

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Pietersen responded to Amre’s arrival on the field of play by saying, “You cannot enter the field.”

“I don’t think that would have happened if Ricky Ponting was there. I don’t think that would have happened at all. Jos Buttler has every right to walk up to Rishabh Pant and say, ‘hey, what on earth are you doing?’ For them to send one of their coaches to actually go on to the field and think that that was right, I don’t think that was the correct behavior. We play the gentleman’s game and people make mistakes…” he went on to add.

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“I think they were bowling well throughout the game but in the end, Powell gave us a chance, I thought that no-ball could have been precious for us but it is not in my control. Yes, disappointed but can’t do much about it. Everyone was frustrated (in the dugout) that it was not even close, everyone on the ground saw that, I think the third umpire should have interfered and said it was a no-ball,” Pant said in the post-match presentation ceremony while discussing the situation.

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“Obviously, it wasn’t right (sending Amre onto the field) but what happened with us is also not right, it happened in the heat of the moment. It was the fault of both sides and it is disappointing as we have seen some good umpiring in the tournament,” Pant added.

After the incident, Delhi could only score a couple of runs and went on to lose the match by 15 runs.