Kevin Pietersen retired hurt after facing only one ball © BCCI
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen may be ruled out of Rising Pune Supergiants’ coming matches, after injuring his right calf during their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Pune on Friday. Pietersen came to the crease at No. 3, but retired hurt after facing only one ball when he hurt his leg taking off for a single. He called for assistance immediately and had to be carried off the field by his team-mates.
Supergiants captain MS Dhoni though felt Pietersen’s loss could be a “blessing in disguise.” At the post-match presentation, after their third defeat in four IPL matches, Dhoni admitted his bowlers were lacking the ability to close an innings out. Royal Challengers had amassed 57 runs in the final five overs in Pune to post 185 and recorded only the second instance of a team successfully defending a total. There have been 16 games this season.
If Pietersen – who posted a picture of himself in a wheelchair from the Supergiants dressing room with strapping on his right calf and the capion “Urgh” – is sidelined, there would be space in the XI for allrounders like Mitchell Marsh or Albie Morkel.
“We’re playing with six bowlers, yet our death bowling isn’t great,” Dhoni said.”Maybe we can look to bring in Albie Morkel or Mitch Marsh in the next game. With the kind of players we’ve got, it has always been difficult to drop someone. We need to strengthen our bowling line a bit.”
Marsh has taken 35 wickets in 58 T20s – 19 in the IPL across four seasons – while Morkel has 228 wickets from 285 matches – 78 of them were under Dhoni’s captaincy at Chennai Super Kings – over his career.
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo