South Africa’s Celebrations Soured As Captain And Players Fined For Slow Over Rate

South Africa’s celebrations after beating India by 135 runs in the second Test and taking the series-winning 2-0 lead in the three-match series in Centurion on Wednesday soured a bit as captain Faf du Plessis was fined 40 per cent of his match fee for his team’s slow over-rate and each member of the side was fined 10 per cent of his match fee.

Announcing this, the ICC said that ICC Match Referee Chris Broad imposed the fine after du Plessis’s team was ruled to be two overs short of their target after time allowances were taken into consideration.

Earlier in the match, India captain Virat Kohli was fined 25 per cent of his match fee and received one demerit point for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct (for showing dissent against umpire) during the third day’s play when his team was fielding.

On Wednesday, the ICC imposed the fine on du Plessis in accordance with Article 2.5.1 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Players Support Personnel, which relates to minor over-rate offences. Players are fined 10 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, with the captain fined double that amount. As such, de Plessis has been fined 40 per cent of his match fee, while his players have received 20 per cent fines.

If South Africa commit another minor over-rate breach in a Test within 12 months of this offence with du Plessis as captain, it will be deemed a second offence by du Plessis and he will face a suspension.

Du Plessis pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing. The charge was levelled by on-field umpires Michael Gough and Paul Reiffel, third umpire Richard Kettleborough and fourth umpire Allahudien Palekar.

Earlier on Wednesday, promising debutant speedster Lungi Ngidi took six wickets in India’s second innings -- four of the last seven to fall -- to lead the Proteas to victory over India.

South Africa had won the first Test as well. The third and final Test match will be played at the Bidvest Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg, from next Wednesday.

Ngidi’s 6/39 was the seventh best by a South African on debut and the 27th best on the all-time list. In all, he only bowled 26.2 overs in the match for his seven wickets that gave him an incredible strike rate of a wicket every 22.5 balls.

At the other end of the spectrum, India’s No. 3 batsman Cheteshwar Pujara became the 23rd player -- the first Indian player and the first for 18 years -- to be run out in both innings of the same Test match. Rohit Sharma was India’s top scorer with 47 in the second innings.