Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni was on Saturday fined Rs 12 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during the side’s opening game of 2021 IPL against Delhi Capitals at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.
“Chennai Super Kings captain MS Dhoni has been fined after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 match against Delhi Capitals at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on April 10. 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 Dhoni was fined Rs 12 lakh,” read an official release from IPL.
Chennai Super Kings (CSK) got off to a poor start in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 as they suffered a crushing 7-wicket defeat against Delhi Capitals (DC) in their opening game of the season in Mumbai on Sunday. CSK failed to defend a strong total of 188 runs in their opening encounter and have also been fined for maintaining a slow over-rate in the game.
The BCCI has set a deadline of ninety minutes for the bowling team to finish their quota of 20 overs in an uninterrupted game. CSK bowled only 18.4 overs in their game against Delhi Capitals on Sunday as the Rishabh Pant-led side chased down the target of 189 runs with eight balls to spare.
“As a measure to control the match timings, the 20th over in each innings is now included in 90 minutes, earlier the 20th over was to start on or before the 90th minute. The minimum over rate to be achieved in IPL Matches shall be 14.11 overs per hour (ignoring the time taken by time-outs),” a BCCI official had said earlier.
Chennai Super Kings’ bowling unit failed to fire as Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw came up with a T20 batting masterclass, stitching a 138-run opening stand in just 13.3 overs.
Barring Dwayne Bravo, none of the other CSK bowlers managed to conceded at less than 7 runs per over. Dhawan came up with a masterful knock of 85 from just 54 balls while Shaw smashed 72 from just 38 balls.
MS Dhoni and CSK bowlers struggled with the dew that was on offer at the Wankhede Stadium in the late evening. Dhoni pointed out the role of the dew and said teams batting first in Mumbai this season might want to score nothing less than 200.
“The opposition have half an hour in a 7:30 start, when the pitch is really tacky and the ball stops a bit, so we need to get 15-20 runs extra to be safe. If we get dew consistently, then 200 will be a must on a pitch like this,” Dhoni said.