Ten years before Alzarri Joseph’s non run out for the lack of appeal by the Australian fielders, Kevin Pietersen was lucky to survive a similar dismissal in the 2014 Indian Premier League.
Pietersen was fortunate to get two run out reprieves during the 2014 IPL due to controversial umpiring, one of which was eerily similar to the Joseph incident.
Pietersen, then Delhi Daredevils captain, got an early life against Rajasthan Royals on May 15 during the third over of the run chase when Unmukt Chand took a shy at the stumps at the striker’s end. Pietersen’s foot was in the air when the ball hit the three sticks but he was ruled not out by S Ravi, the on-field umpire.
Ravi’s decision to not go upstairs could have had to do with the half-hearted appeal by only a couple of Rajasthan fielders, similar to what umpire Gerard Abood said was the reasoning for why he did not consider taking Joseph’s review further in the Australia-West Indies T20I on Sunday (February 11). Pietersen, then on three, made 13.
This was the second controversy involving the former England player and a run out that season. The first such instance occurred during Delhi Daredevils’ match with, incidentally, Rajasthan Royals again two weeks earlier on May 3 when a throw by Rajasthan keeper Sanju Samson in the seventh over broke the stumps at the striker’s end. TV replays showed that the Delhi skipper was well short of his ground, by Sanjay Hazare turned down the appeal and did not refer it to the third umpire.
Two #RRvsDD matches.
On both matches, KP was run-out.
On both occasions, umpire didn’t refer it. pic.twitter.com/yHEjAaKlaO— Jalandar (@jalandar_) May 15, 2014
The IPL took cognizance of the matter and later stood down Hazare from officiating in any other match in the tournament. Hazare later told ESPNCricinfo: “I was confident that he made his ground. was very clear about that. And hence I did not refer to the third umpire. I told him [match referee] the same thing,” he said. “It was a human error. Once I had made the decision I could not correct it.”
Ravi, however. was not reprimanded by the IPL for his decision of ruling Pietersen not out.
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