India seamer Harshit Rana has been handed a demerit point by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for breaching the Code of Conduct in the first ODI of the three-match series against South Africa. Harshit had given a send-off to Dewald Brevis after dismissing him for 37 runs during the match and this led to him being penalized. Notably, this was the 23-year-old's first offence in a 24-month period.
Harshit's fiery gesture towards Brevis
Harshit's gesture towards Brevis breached Article 2.5 of ICC's code, which relates to "using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter". The incident took place in the 22nd over of South Africa's chase of 350 runs. After dismissing Brevis, Rana had pointed towards the direction of the dressing room.
Harshit's commendable performance in 1st ODI
Meanwhile, Harshit played a key role in India's victory against South Africa in the first ODI. He recorded figures of 3/65 in his quota of 10 overs and provided the Men in Blue with a strong start. He did so by picking up the wickets of both Ryan Rickelton and Quinton de Kock in the second over of the innings. Brevis proved to be his third and final scalp of the day as the hosts managed to bundle out the Proteas for 332 and win the match by a narrow margin of 17 runs.
The young speedster will be hoping to maintain this form in the remaining two game of the series. The second ODI will be played at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in New Raipur while the action will move to the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam for the third and final match.
India's playing XI for 2nd ODI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul (c & wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna.
South Africa's playing XI for 2nd ODI: Aiden Markram, Quinton de Kock (wk), Temba Bavuma (c), Matthew Breetzke, Tony de Zorzi, Dewald Brevis, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Lungi Ngidi.