Not one for starting beefs , former Australian captain Ricky Ponting outdid himself this time.
During another calamitous day for the Brits in the second Ashes Test, ex-England batter Kevin Pietersen took a shot at the current England players for not playing Nathan Lyon more aggressively, belittling the Australian spinner in the process.
“Can someone please smack Lyon? FFS!” he wrote on social media.
“Off-spinner with zero variations and bowling on world cricket’s flattest road!”
Pietersen’s selective memory failed to recognise his own dismal record against Lyon, the maligned spinner who has more Test wickets than any other English bowler in history.
The Aussie dismissed Pietersen four times in Test cricket – the only other bowlers that claimed his wicket more was Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan and Saeed Ajmal.
Such damaging proof was enough for Ponting to weigh-in.
“Four hundred Test wickets, Kev,” he said in commentary.
“Lyon to Pietersen. Lyon got him four times for 163 runs and at the Adelaide Oval, the world’s flattest cricket wicket, Kevin Pietersen, none for 14 off 23 balls with 15 dots and only one boundary.
“Come on Kev.”
Pietersen came back this morning (AEDT) on Twitter, defending his take on Lyon.
“It’s quite bizarre how many Australians responded so negatively to my tweet about Lyon,” he tweeted.
“The Aussie way would be to attack and NOT play him like these English batters. Because he’s got 400 wickets you’re not allowed to attack him?! Strange!”
Ponting couldn’t help himself later in the coverage when Lyon’s competency was on show again.
England No. 6 Ollie Pope was caught by Marnus Labuschagne at short leg off Lyon’s bowling, after skipping down the pitch and trying to play him through mid-wicket. The ill-fated decision led to Lyon’s first scalp.
The 34-year-old grabbed another after the tea break, bowling England all-rounder Chris Woakes with a sharp turning delivery. He finished off the day with figures of 3/58.
“I wonder if Kev’s still watching,” Ponting joked in commentary.
“The GOAT’s just taken another one. This is high-class bowling, pushed him back. They left the field open on the off-side, inside edge back on the stumps.
“This is off spin of the highest class.”
Responding to Woakes’ dismissal, Pietersen tweeted: “Imagine he was down the wicket and smacked it onto the grass?!”
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