Punjab captain Ravichandran Ashwin has been fined Rs. 12 Lakh for maintaining slow over-rate during his side’s five-wicket defeat against Delhi in the India T20 League at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Saturday.
Following the punishment, the veteran spinner has become fourth Indian T20 League captain, after Mumbai’s Rohit Sharma, Rajasthan’s Ajinkya Rahane (recently stripped off) and Bengaluru’s Virat Kohli, to be fined over the aforementioned.
"As it was his team's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr. Ashwin was fined Rs 12 lakh," read an official statement from the India T20 League.
Put into bat first by the hosts, Punjab, who saw their middle order failing miserably, posted a respectable 163/7, courtesy of Chris Gayle’s 37-ball 69. The scored could have been much lesser if not for the captain, who scored a 14-ball 16, and Harpreet Brar, who smashed 20 off just 12 deliveries.
Delhi, on the back of Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer’s half-centuries, chased the target with two balls to spare. They lost their young prodigy, Prithvi Shaw, early in the game, but a 92-run stand between their captain, Iyer, and Dhawan was enough to register their first victory over Punjab since 2017.
The fine, on the other hand, was slapped as the game got over just seven minutes before midnight.
