File photo of the Pakistan cricket team© AFP
Pakistan cricket team is going through a bad phase. After being knocked out of the group stage in the Champions Trophy, Pakistan lost 1-4 in a T20I series against New Zealand and then were outplayed 0-3 in an ODI series. Now, Pakistan have been fined five per cent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate against New Zealand in the third ODI in Mount Maunganui on Saturday. “The visitors have been fined for the third successive game in the recently concluded series against the Black Caps,” the ICC said in a release. The 1st ODI of the series happened on March 29, the second on April 2 and the third on April 5. The third sanction was announced on Monday.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said on Monday that Jeff Crowe of the Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction following Pakistan being ruled to be one over short of the stipulated target with time allowances 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 five per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time,” ICC said in a statement.
Rizwan pleaded guilty to the offence after on-field umpires Chris Brown and Paul Reiffel along with third umpire Michael Gough and fourth umpire Wayne Knights levelled the charge.
In the match where New Zealand completed an ODI series sweep over Pakistan, Michael Bracewell and Rhys Mariu smashed half-centuries as the Black Caps made 264/8 in 42 overs. In reply, pacer Ben Sears picked his second successive five-wicket haul as New Zealand bowled out Pakistan for 221 and won the game by 43 runs, as the visitors’ suffered their sixth consecutive men’s ODI defeat to the hosts.
The match also saw an incident of crowd trouble involving Pakistan all-rounder Khushdil Shah, with security personnel trying to stop the agitated cricketer from going above the fence towards some spectators.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) said in its statement that the two spectators, originally from Afghanistan, directed swearing words towards Khushdil in Pashto and the ground staff eventually removed them from the venue.
With IANS inputs
Topics mentioned in this article
