KP injury 'blessing in disguise' - Dhoni

Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen may be ruled out of Rising Pune Supergiants' coming matches, after injuring his right calf during their match against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Pune on Friday. Pietersen came to the crease at No. 3, but retired hurt after facing only one ball when he hurt his leg taking off for a single. He called for assistance immediately and had to be carried off the field.

If Pietersen - who posted a picture of himself in a wheelchair from the Supergiants dressing room with strapping on his right calf and the caption "Urgh" - is sidelined, there would be space in the XI for allrounders like Mitchell Marsh or Albie Morkel, which led Supergiants captain MS Dhoni to say, "KP's injury can be a blessing in disguise."

At the post-match presentation, after their third defeat in four IPL matches, Dhoni admitted his bowlers were lacking the ability to close an innings out. Royal Challengers had amassed 57 runs in the final five overs in Pune to post 185 and recorded only the second instance of a team successfully defending a total. There have been 16 games this season.

"We're playing with six bowlers, yet our death bowling isn't great," Dhoni said."Maybe we can look to bring in Albie Morkel or Mitch Marsh in the next game. With the kind of players we've got, it has always been difficult to drop someone. We need to strengthen our bowling line a bit."

Marsh has taken 35 wickets in 58 T20s - 19 in the IPL across four seasons - while Morkel has 228 wickets from 285 matches - 78 of them were under Dhoni's captaincy with Chennai Super Kings.

Virat Kohli, the Royal Challengers captain, has been fined INR 12 lakh for his team's slow over-rate during the match against Supergiants.

"Since it was his first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr. Kohli was fined Rs 12 lakh," a media release said.

Kohli is not the first IPL captain to cop a fine of this magnitude for not finishing the 20 overs on time. Last year, Mumbai Indians' Rohit Sharma paid INR 12 lakh for a first-time breach.

The IPL has always been severe on teams maintaining slow over-rate. In 2010, Kings XI Punjab captain Kumar Sangakkara was fined $20,000 for a first offence. Two more breaches resulted in a $50,000 penalty and a one-match ban for Sangakkara while his team-mates were docked $20,000 each. The same year, Kolkata Knight Riders captain Sourav Ganguly was fined $40,000 for a second over-rate offence while Mumbai's Sachin Tendulkar and Delhi Daredevils' Gautam Gambhir received $20,000 penalties.