Shoaib Akhtar and Kevin Pietersen engage in playful banter on Twitter

With social media quickly taking over the world, cricketing legends are not ones to hold back and online interactions often present us with humorous moments as they attempt to pull a cheeky one over the other with their witty replies.

The most recent example of this was witnessed when Shoaib Akhtar uploaded a photograph of him jubilant with passion and staring intently at a dejected Kevin Pietersen, after having taken his wicket as the latter is seen with his head bowed in the picture, walking back to the pavilion. The message behind the picture was to motivate the Pakistan squad which is participating in the World Cup in England to play the game with pride and commitment and to give it their all on the field.

“Blood, sweat, aggression, racing heartbeat, badmaashi. This is whats required when you represent your country. This star on your chest is your pride guys. Tagra khelo. Go get them. Larr jao,” read Shoaib Akhtar’s tweet, ahead of his country’s World Cup game against the hosts on Monday.

Kevin Pietersen, with his characteristic humour, was quick to reply with a cheek-in-tongue comment to get one over Akhtar. He pointed out that though the intention of the message might have been good, the choice of picture certainly, was not, since it was taken after Pietersen had scored a glamorous hundred against his counterpart.

“Can’t argue with that tweet buddy as you’re celebrating after I smacked you all over for a 100...! Great passion,” ead Pietersen’s reply which had Twitterati drooling over his sense of humour and had everyone in splits.

Akhtar though, was not one to get offended, as his reply capped off the incident.

“Mate you were a true force to reckon with but loved my chicken dance after getting u out ,”  it read.

The two teams have had very contrasting starts to the tournament, with Pakistan getting humiliated in their World Cup opener whereas England registered a comfortable victory against the Proteas. It will be interesting to see whether there any further interactions between the two as their countries face off tommorrow.