Team India have been fined 40 per cent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate against South Africa in the third and final ODI of the series in Cape Town on Sunday.
Andy Pycroft of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after KL Rahul’s side was ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration.
“In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time,” the ICC asid in a statement.
“Rahul pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing. On-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Bongani Jele, third umpire Allauhudien Palekar and fourth umpire Adrien Holdstock leveled the charge,” it added.
Earlier, hosts South Africa registerd a narrow four-run win in a thrilling affair at Newlands stadium, Cape Town and also won the ODI series 3-0.
Put into bat, the home side rode on a fantastic century by Quinton de Kock (124 off 130) along with Rassie van der Dussen’s valuable 52 to post a challenging 287 in 49.5 overs.
Apart from de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen (52 off 59), David Miller chipped in with 39 runs off 38 balls for the Proteas.
In reply, opener Shikhar Dhawan (61 off 73) and Virat Kohli (65 off 84) played important knocks but the tourists threw wickets at regular intervals and were in deep trouble at one point before Deepak Chahar’s (54 off 34) knock under pressure ignited hopes and kept India in the game till the time he was at the crease.
Chahar however, fell in the first ball of the second last over when India needed 10 runs to win off 17 balls with two wickets in hand.
Later, South Africa sent back Jasprit Bumrah in the penultimate over and in the last over, with six needed off six balls, Yuzvendra Chahal’s slog found the top edge and South Africa closed off the game with a nervy four-run victory.
South Africa had won the first two affairs by 31 runs and seven wickets respectively.