Cricket greats Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting has given contrasting reactions to England’s bold declaration call on day 1 of the ongoing first Ashes Test at Edgbaston.
England left the cricketing world stunned with their bold call to declare towards the end of day when the score was 393 for 8. Former captain Joe Root’s stunning unbeaten knock of 118 helped England recover from 176 for 5 to 393 for 8 before Ben Stokes decided that his team has had enough with the bat as he executed the earliest first-innings declaration in Ashes history.
Batting first, England lost Ben Duckett cheaply before Zak Crawley’s impressive fifty put them on top. However, Australia struck at regular intervals to have England reeling at 176 for 5. Root and Jonny Bairstow, who scored 78, then added 121 runs before Root combined with lower-order players to take his team to a good total in the first innings. In reply, Australia were on 14 for no loss at stumps.
Kevin Pietersen and Ricky Ponting on the declaration:
Speaking after Stokes’ bold call, former England captain Kevin Pietersen bluntly said that he did not like the declaration. Pietersen said that England should have tried scoring 400 or 450 reasons for psychological reasons although he left the possibility of him being proven wrong open.
“I don’t think that’s the nature of his captaincy (in and out fields from Stokes). It’s difficult to answer because we did not see much in it this evening. And I did that Test match last year against India with you guys, it was a wicket that did get better for batting, and I think that tomorrow (Saturday) could be the most beautiful day. That’s why I am… I didn’t like the declaration,” Pietersen told Sky Sports.
“We will find out if it’s the right thing to have done. I always got told 400… get to 400, 450 in the first innings of a Test match. It’s psychological. Maybe I am being too critical, I don’t know, we will see,” he added.
However, Ricky Ponting contradicted Pietersen and said that the call was not totally unexpected. One of the game’s most decorated captains and batsmen, the former Australia skipper said that he loved the declaration call from the hosts.
“We were sort of expecting it, weren’t we? They were up with the scoring rate and had a chance to get the Australians out for 15-20 minutes tonight. I love it, to be honest. That’s all about Ben Stokes and the new attitude of this current England regime under Stokes and McCullum,” Ponting was quoted as saying to the official broadcasters.
“They are doing everything to take the game forward and give themselves the best chance of winning games. They are trying to capitalise and seize the moment,” he added.
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