Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant has been fined 100 percent of his match fee for breaching the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Code of Conduct during his team’s match against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium on Friday night.
The match between the Royals and Capitals plunged into controversy over a debatable waist-high no-ball that was ruled legal by the umpires but disputed by a team from the National Capital.
Royals went on to win the high-scoring game by 15 runs.
Television images showed Pant gesturing to Rovman Powell and Kuldeep Yadav to walk off the pitch because the umpires had refused to seek the opinion of the video official over what they claimed was a waist-high no-ball bowled by Rajasthan Royals’ Obed McCoy in the final over of the clash.
Pant asking Powell and Yadav to walk off the pitch would have amounted to forfeiting the match. However better sense prevailed with Capitals’ assistant coach Shane Watson and some other players ensuring that Pant calmed down and that the batters stayed inside the ground.
Chasing a huge target of 223 in 20 overs, Delhi Capitals needed 36 runs from six deliveries with two wickets in hand. Their West Indies hit-man Rovman Powell hammered the first two deliveries — poor full tosses — bowled by Obed McCoy for two sixes and meted out the same treatment to the third delivery, which his partner at the non-striker’s end felt was above the waist and thus a no-ball.
The umpire at the bowing end, Nitin Menon thought otherwise and allowed it as a legal entry, a decision that had the entire Delhi Capitals dugout howling in protest. Pant even sent Delhi Capitals coach Pravin Amre to walk onto the ground to argue with the umpires and impress upon them the need to refer it to the third umpire, unmindful of the rules that do not allow such decisions to be reviewed by the third umpire.
The on-field umpires were firm in their interpretation of the rules and did not rule it as a no-ball. The match went ahead and Powell could not hit any more sixes and Delhi Capitals ended up 15-run short.
On Saturday the IPL issued a statement, saying, “Mr. Pant admitted to the Level 2 offense under Article 2.7 of the IPL Code of Conduct and accepted the sanction. Shardul Thakur from Delhi Capitals has been fined 50 percent of his match fee for breaching the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Code of Conduct during his team’s match against Rajasthan Royals at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Mr. Thakur admitted to the Level 2 offense under Article 2.8 of the IPL Code of Conduct and accepted the sanction.
“Pravin Amre, Assistant Coach, Delhi Capitals has been fined 100 percent of his match fee for breaching the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Code of Conduct during his team’s match against Rajasthan Royals at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. He will also face a one-match ban for the offense. Mr. Amre admitted to the Level 2 offense under Article 2.2 of the IPL Code of Conduct and accepted the sanction,” said the statement.
