Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant, who has made a great comeback to cricket after recovering from injuries sustained due to a horrific car crash, was on Thursday fined Rs 24 lakh for a second over rate offence in the 2024 Indian Premier League. Pant was guilty of maintaining a slow-over in the game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday. The rest of his teammates were fined 25 percent of their match fees. "Rishabh Pant, the Delhi Capitals captain, has been fined after his team maintained a slow over rate during their TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match against Kolkata Knight Riders..." said the IPL in a statement titled 'IPL Media Advisory: Code of Conduct Breach'..
"As it was his team's second offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over rate offences, Pant was fined INR 24 lakhs.
"The rest of the members of the Playing XI, including the Impact Player, were each individually fined either INR 6 lakhs or 25 percent of their respective match fees, whichever is lesser," it added.
Delhi Capitals lost the game to KKR by 106 runs after the latter smashed 272 for seven, the second highest total in IPL history. It was Delhi Capitals' third loss in four games.
According to the IPL rules, in case of a third slow over-rate offense by a team in one season, the captain is fined INR 30 lakh and is handed over a match ban. The rest of the team is imposed with a fine of INR 12 lakh or 50% of their match fee, whichever is lesser. So Pant needs to ensure that the offense is not repeated by his team.
Speaking on Star Sports, former Australia cricketer Michael Clarke spoke on Rishabh Pant's performance against KKR. He said, "Yeah look it's great for Indian cricket, but it's also great for Rishabh Pant. I think the work that has gone into his rehab to get back to that level of play at any standard is an amazing achievement. He's deserves a lot of credit for his hard work and it's great to see him on the field, captaining and playing well, batting and keeping.
"He looked a little bit sore, a little bit ginger, I saw the Delhi physio run out to the field a couple of times to check on him, so hopefully he's pulled out okay, the positives are in the presentation he said he was fine and hopefully a day off or a couple of days off and he will be ready for the next game. He's a wonderful player and everybody is happy that he's back on the field and we want to see him play for Delhi, but we also want to see him come back and play for India as soon as possible."
With PTI inputs