The Duniyah Cricket Blog

The recent ODI between England and New Zealand will be most remembered for a stunning century by Kevin Pietersen which set up the game for his team to win.  Although the numbers will look very impressive in years to come, the manner they were scored is what will raise the most eyebrows. Two shots against Scott Styris are the ones I am referring to in particular. While Styris ran in, KP ’switched’ from the right handed guard he had taken to a left handed guard and proceeded to deposit the ball over mid wicket for 6; and then repeated the process this time going over long on. Many critics and analysts have been split over the legality of this shot and the MCC will be discussing it in the coming days.

Those who support the shot’s legality claim it shows great skill to improvise and be somewhat of a switch hitter, which is a very rare talent.  If he has the skill to come up with an advantage over the bowler, then by all means he should be able to use that on the field. Keep in mind, there is nothing “exterraneous” about this shot, its a pure cricket shot which he has come up with without the use of drugs, etc.  Unlike bowlers, a batsman does not have to notify the umpires and bowler if they opt to reverse their batting style so this is a legal shot.  KP himself has labelled the criticism ‘absolutely stupid’ saying the game should embrace innovation. Some say that as ‘variety is the spice of life’ there is nothing wrong with new methods such as this.

Although the shot is in theory legal, it has generated some criticism in the English media.  New questions have arose including: what happens if there are more than 2 fielders behind square on the leg side? what is the new leg stump line (to consider for lbws)?  Other detractors have claimed this shot is similar to a right arm bowler running in and at the last minute bowling left arm.  As a bowler is prohibited from doing this, surely this is another rule in favour of the batsman?

So finally, we have to decide are the critics penalising rare brilliance or will this shot be yet another rule that hurts bowlers. In my opinion, innovation is always a good thing and KP deserves a lot of credit for showing the courage and class to pull of this shot. Most other players do not have the power to attempt such a thing. In the future I think this can be an effective tactic to use against negative bowling e.g. left arm spinners who deliberately bowl over the wicket into a right hand batsman’s pads. The ’switch’ would enable the batsman to hit the ball into the vacant ‘leg side’.  However we need to consider what can be done to even things up for bowlers. It is very unlikely that any bowlers are able to bowl accurately and fast from their ‘wrong’ hand. Therefore the option I would support is to let the bowler choose to bowl ‘over or around’ during his run-up. Overall I reckon we will see a lot more of this shot in the future especially in T20 cricket and the spontanaity of it will keep crowds on the edges of their seats.