Pakistan lost to New Zealand in the first ODI encounter© AFP
Pakistan have been fined 10 percent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate in the first One-day International against New Zealand at Napier on Saturday. “Jeff Crowe of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after Mohammad Rizwan’s side was ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration,” the ICC said in a release on Tuesday. In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offenses, players are fined five percent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.
Rizwan pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing. On-field umpires Chris Brown and Paul Reiffel, third umpire Michael Gough, and fourth umpire Wayne Knights leveled the charge.
Mark Chapman scored a career-best 132 off 111 balls to guide New Zealand to a 73-run victory in the first ODI at McLean Park. The left-hander’s masterful knock, combined with Daryl Mitchell’s gritty 76 and a record-breaking debut fifty by Muhammad Abbas, the fastest-ever by a batter on debut, saw the hosts post an imposing 344.
Pakistan, for much of their chase, seemed well on course to overhaul the target. Babar Azam’s fluent 78 and Salman Agha’s explosive fifty put them in dominant position but a dramatic collapse saw them lose seven wickets for just 22 runs, tumbling from 249 for 3 to 271 all out.
Meanwhile, New Zealand will be without Chapman for the second ODI in Hamilton on Wednesday due to a right hamstring injury. He sustained the injury while fielding during the first ODI in Napier, and a subsequent MRI scan revealed a grade one tear, which will require a short period of rehabilitation.
Top-order batter Tim Seifert will replace Chapman in the squad in Hamilton. He joins the squad on the back of a memorable T20I series against Pakistan, where he topped the run-scoring charts with 249 runs, averaging 62.
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