Kevin Pietersen during the first one-dayer against New Zealand

London: Kevin Pietersen’s innovative switch hitting received the all clear on Tuesday from the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the guardians of cricket laws.

The MCC met on Tuesday to consider the legality of the batsman’s hits at the request of the International Cricket Council (ICC) after Pietersen’s two astonishing sixes in England’s 114-run win over New Zealand on Sunday.

“Indeed, the stroke conforms to the Laws of Cricket and will not be legislated against,” the MCC’s cricket committee said in a statement. “MCC believes that the ‘switch hit’ stroke is a difficult shot to execute and that it incurs a great deal of risk for the batsman.

“It also offers bowlers a good chance of taking a wicket and therefore MCC believes that the shot is fair to both batsman and bowler.”

Pietersen changed his grip and his stance — from a right-hander to a left-hander — while Scott Styris was in his delivery stride and hit two sixes over cover and long-off in his unbeaten 110.

The MCC said, “while noting the superb execution of the stroke by Kevin Pietersen,” it had already acknowledged the reverse hits in the 2000 Laws of Cricket — Law 36.3 — relating to the stance of a batsman.

That law defines the off side of the batsman’s stance when the bowler starts his run-up.

The MCC said it would continue to investigate the switch hitting strokes, however, because it had implications on other laws of the game, including wide and lbw decisions.

Critics of the switch hits have said it is unfair on bowlers, who have to inform the batsman which arm they’re bowling with and from which side of the wicket they’re going to bowl from.

The MCC said it acknowledged that but “they do not provide a warning of the type of delivery that they will send down.”

“It therefore concludes that the batsman should have the opportunity should they wish of executing the ‘switch hit’ stroke.”

Styris, who shook his head and smiled as Pietersen’s second switch hit went for six, had no objection to the shot.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to take your hat off and say, ‘No, he played a great shot,’” Styris said. “It was a magnificent piece of cricket from a great player.”

After his innings, Pietersen could not understand the fuss. Players have been using reverse sweeps for decades, switching stance and rolling the wrists over deliveries to hit behind the wicket, but Pietersen has taken it to a new level by bludgeoning balls over the boundaries in front of square.

“Reverse sweeps have been part of the game for however long, I am just fortunate that I can hit it a bit further,” Pietersen said.

“I don’t understand (criticism) because everybody wants brand new ideas, new inventions and that’s a new shot. Nobody has seen it before.”

Pietersen said he played to win and was happy to hone any shot to help that.

“There’s new things happening to cricket at the moment and people are criticising all the time,” he said. “There should just be positives about all the stuff that’s happening.”

The South Africa-born England batsman, one of the highest profile players in limited-over cricket, said he spent time practising and visualising the switch hits and it was an attacking option for him to accelerate the run rate.

England and New Zealand meet in game two of the five-match series at Birmingham on Wednesday.

Styris said New Zealand all-rounder Jacbo Oram, who bats left-handed, had experimented with a changed stance.

“I know he has hit balls out of the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) batting right-handed,” he said.

“It crossed my mind briefly when I was out there (batting) to play it but if I would have got out it would have been a double blow.”

Off-spinner Graeme Swann, who impressed for England in convincing wins over the Black Caps in Friday’s Twenty20 International and Sunday’s first of five one-day matches, also backed Pietersen.

“It’s brilliant, I can’t understand the furore it has caused,” Swann said. “It got 16,000 people leaving the ground talking about it. It’s a freak of nature how he can do it. Those hits didn’t just dribble over the line, they cleared it by a distance.

“Had he been caught people would have said ‘what an idiot’, like when (Mike) Gatting reverse swept and lost the World Cup in 1987. For Kev (Pietersen) to pull it off and to hit it as far as he did was laughable, it was pure KP. He does try it in the nets and he is almost impossible to bowl to when he decides to try things.”

“I’m sure there will be other people trying it but I’m willing to bet there won’t be another person in the world who could play that shot like Kev. We were gob-smacked in the dressing room.”