India and West Indies fined for slow over-rate in first T20I at Trinidad

After clinching the ODI series 2-1, India locked horns with West Indies in the first T20I of the five-match T20I series. The hosts won the match by four runs and the former Windies skipper, Jason Holder was awarded the Player of the Match for his match-winning performance. He snapped two wickets in his spell of four overs where he conceded 19 runs and bowled one maiden over.

The Men in Blue and the Windies side both were fined for slow over-rate in the first T20I which was played at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium in Tarouba, in Trinidad. India was fined five per cent of their match fee for falling one over short of the minimum over-rate, while West Indies have been fined 10 per cent of their match fee for falling two overs short of the minimum over-rate.

A young team will make mistakes: Hardik Pandya

The Article 2.22 of the Cricket Governing Body’s Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined five per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time, subject to a cap of 50 per cent of the match fee. The punishment was imposed by Richie Richardson of the  Elite Panel of Match Referees after it was found that both sides of Hardik Pandya and Rovman Powell fell short of their target by one and two overs, respectively, after time allowances were taken into account.

“A young team will make mistakes. We will grow together. Throughout the game, we were in control of the game which was the positive in this game. Good four games coming ahead. In T20 cricket, if you lose wickets, it becomes difficult to chase down any total, that’s exactly what happened. A couple of hits can change the momentum towards you. When we lost a couple of wickets, that halted our chase. It (playing three spinners) was more to do with the conditions. We would like to give opportunities to the two wristies (Kuldeep and Chahal) to play together,” Hardik Pandya was quoted as saying in the post-match presentation.