After losing by seven wickets in the rescheduled fifth Test against England on Tuesday, India was fined 40% of their match fees and docked two ICC World Test Championship points for maintaining a slow over-rate during the match at Edgbaston.
On day five, England needed 119 runs to chase down a record 378 runs, their most successful run chase in Test history, with Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow sharing a 269-run stand to remain unbeaten 142 and 114 respectively. It meant that England tied the Pataudi Trophy series 2-2, denying India a chance to win their first Test series in England since 2007.
“David Boon of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after India were ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration,” said an official release by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
According to Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which deals with minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20% of their match fee for each over in which their team fails to bowl in the allotted time.
Furthermore, under Article 16.11.2 of the ICC World Test Championship (WTC) playing conditions, a side is penalised one point for each over that is not completed. As a result, two WTC points have been deducted from India’s total.
The inability to stay on the crease from Shreyas Iyer and Pant on the fourth morning resulted in the England’s fourth innings target coming down to less than 400. A good partnership between the former two would’ve given the Indian bowling attack some much needed confidence in order to defend the 450+ target with ease.
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However, that wasn’t the case after Shreyas Iyer’s dismissal as the middle order came crumbling down under pressure later on which gave the English players a much easier total to chase in the end.
378 was still a huge total to defend against a well rounded Indian bowling attack but it was the negative mindset by the Indian team who decided to let the Root-Bairstow partnership to gradually grow with time that decided the match. Instead of showing some much needed aggression in the field and forcing the batsmen to hit the ball towards the boundaries, both batsmen were allowed to take singles easily allowing the scoreboard to keep ticking without any disruption.
Due to the two-point penalty, India has dropped to fourth place in the ICC World Test Championship standings, trailing Pakistan, which is now third. Following the points penalty, India is on 75 points with a point percentage of 52.08 percent, just a hair lower than Pakistan’s point percentage of 52.38 percent.
“India captain Jasprit Bumrah pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need for a formal hearing. On-field umpires Aleem Dar and Richard Kettleborough, third umpire Marais Erasmus and fourth umpire Alex Wharf leveled the charge,” added the ICC.