Big news: ICC punishes Team India, imposes fine for this reason ahead of South Africa T20Is

Team India was fined 10 per cent of their match fee by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for maintaining a slow over-rate in the second ODI of the three-match series against South Africa. The Men in Blue went on to lose that match by a 4-wicket margin as the Proteas levelled the series at 1-1, but the hosts came out victorious in the all-important third match to clinch the series by 2-1.

Richie Richardson of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after the Men in Blue were ruled to be two overs short of the target. According to Article 2.22 of the ICC's  Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, players are fined five per cent of their match fees for  every over the side fails to bowl in the allotted time.

KL Rahul accepts the charge

There was no need of a formal hearing as India captain KL Rahul pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the sanction. The charge was leveled by on-field umpires Rod Tucker and Rohan Pandit, third umpire Sam Nogajski and fourth umpire Jayaraman Madanagopal.

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Meanwhile, after suffering a series whitewash against South Africa inj the two-match Test assignment, India bounced back in ODIs. They won the series by 2-1 and now will be heading into the five-match T20I series brimming with confidence. It was a  dominant all-round display from the hosts in Visakhapatnam as they first bundled out the opposition for 270 runs and went on to chase down the target rather comfortably. They won the  match by nine wickets as Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a fine century while both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli scored valiant half-centuries.

T20I series around the corner

The T20I series between India and South Africa will commence from December 8. Suryakumar Yadav &  Co. are in top form in the shortest format and they will be aiming to dominate in the series especially with the 2026 T20 World Cup also on the horizon. 

India squad for South Africa T20Is: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain)*, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wicket-keeper), Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington Sundar.