Sri Lanka cricket team has been fined 10 percent of their match fee by International Cricket Council (ICC) for maintaining a slow over-rate against South Africa in the Match 4 of ODI World Cup 2023, which was played at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
Javagal Srinath of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after Dasun Shanaka’s side was ruled to be 2 over(s) 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 5 percent of their match fees for every over if their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.
According to ICC, Dasun Shanaka pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing. On-field umpires Richard Illingworth and Shahid Saikat, third umpire Michael Gough and fourth umpire Alex Wharf leveled the charge.
As far as the result of the game was concerned, South Africa hammered Sri Lanka by 102 runs in the highest-scoring match in the history of the tournament.
Batting first, South Africa smashed the Men’s Cricket World Cup’s biggest ever total of 428 after being sent in to bat by Dasun Shanaka. In reply, Sri Lanka were bowled for 326 runs in 44.5 overs.
Meanwhile, South Africa batter Aiden Markram, whose name is now written into the history books for the fastest-ever Cricket World Cup century after he slammed a ton from just 49 balls against Sri Lanka, said that pitch in Delhi was good for batting.
“It was a strange one, I certainly didn’t wake up this morning thinking today would turn out that way. But I gave a couple of balls upfront to get a feel of the wicket and eventually realised, watching Quinny and Rassie (Quinton de Kock and Rassie van der Dussen) bat and having that initial feel, that it was a really good wicket,” said Markram, after the match.
“The outfield was really fast, so value for shots is always there. And that’s almost what I was thinking the whole time; that if you’re setting up to hit really strong, hard cricket shots, the outfield and the pitch helps you out quite a lot as well. So it worked.
Luckily, tonight, balls hit gaps. They don’t always hit gaps, and it could be a different story. But I’m thankful it worked out that way and again it was a really good pitch so that definitely assisted,” he added.
