South Africans fined for slow over rate against England

The South African cricket team has been penalised for slow over-rates in the first ODI against England yesterday at Headingley, Leeds. Member of the elite panel of ICC match referees, Andy Pycroft took this decision against South African captain AB de Villiers and his men as the Proteans were only one over short of the requisite target when time allowances were taken into consideration.

South Africa, prior to the all-important Champions Trophy, are currently engaged in 3-match one day series against England. Many of their key players such as Hashim Amla, Faf du Plessis, AB de Villiers, Chris Morris, Imran Tahir, Kagiso Rabada and David Miller were a part of their respective franchises in the IPL and most of them performed at par with the expectations.

South Africa lost the series opener at Headingley by a huge margin of 72 runs against England. The hosts posted a daunting total of 340, powered by a ton from their captain Eoin Morgan and swashbuckling inning from Moeen Ali.

The Proteas were well on course towards chasing the target with the partnership between Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla. But a flurry of wickets in the middle accompanied by loose shots from some of the batsmen restricted them to a score of 267 from 145/1.

The Law

Following Article 2.5.1 of the ICC code of conduct for players and player support Personnel, players are fined 10 percent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time. Meanwhile, the captain is charged with double of that amount. According to this minor over-rate offence, AB de Villiers would be charged with 20% of the match fees, while rest of the players get away with 10%.

Originally, the charge was sanctioned from on-field umpires Tim Robinson and Rod Tucker, third umpire Chris Gaffaney and fourth official Michael Gough. De Villiers pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction so a formal hearing wasn’t required.