IPL 2020: Kevin Pietersen and Sunil Gavaskar not pleased with MI for not sending Ishan Kishan to bat in Super Over against RCB

Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were involved in the second tied game of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season on Monday. The fact that MI could level the scores was due to Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard who slammed 79 runs in the last four overs. The team had a chance to win a game in the super over but their decision to not send Kishan to bat in the super over hasn’t gone down well with the former cricketers.

Kevin Pietersen and Sunil Gavaskar both were in the commentary box when they were baffled to see Pollard and Hardik Pandya walking out to bat. According to them, Kishan should’ve batted having amassed 99 runs off 58 balls earlier in the game. Consequently, the team could score only 7 runs in the Super Over bowled by Navdeep Saini and ended up losing the game despite Jasprit Bumrah trying his best.

Pietersen wasn’t pleased with the decision at all and also recalled the mistake Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) made earlier in the season when they didn’t send in Mayank Agarwal having smacked 89 with the bat earlier. According to the former England cricketer, batting for a couple of minutes is nothing unless the player is injured.

“He has (had) to be incredibly exhausted and tired to have not batted in that Super over. I think that Mumbai missed a trick, I’m sorry but with that smaller boundary, batting for 2 minutes is nothing. I’m not criticising him (Ishan Kishan), I’m criticising the decision not for him to bat. We saw when Mayank Agarwal didn’t do it the other night (KXIP vs DC in Match 2) and Kings XI lost the contest,” Pietersen said while commentating.

Gavaskar also feels Ishan Kishan should’ve batted

Sunil Gavaskar also echoed his colleague’s views stating Ishan Kishan should’ve batted as it was a matter of batting for only six balls more. “There’s not much time in a Super Over to plan anything. The worst part is the captain and coach will have 15 people telling them what to do. If it was not 8 or 18 to get, RCB would have sent a left-hander in Shivam Dube.

“If it was a 40-over game, Ishan Kishan would still want to go out and bat because form is such a fickle thing it can go just like that. So yes, I think he should have come in because it was a matter of just 6 deliveries,” Gavaskar said. However, Rohit Sharma cleared in the post-match presentation later that the southpaw was drained out and tired after his heroic and that was the reason he didn’t bat in the Super Over.