South Africa vs Australia: Hosts fined 20 percent of match fee for maintaining slow over rate in first T20I

Johannesburg: South Africa were fined 20 percent of their match fee for maintaining a slow over-rate in the first T20 International against Australia on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_8075751” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kagiso Rabada and Faf du Plessis in conversation during South Africa’s first T20 match against Australia. AP[/caption] South Africa were found to be one over short after time allowances were taken into account, which led to the fine. Captain Quinton de Kock pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction, so there was no need of a formal hearing with match referee Andrew Pycroft. In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for players and player support personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time. Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar grabbed a hat-trick as Australia crushed South Africa by 107 runs in the opener at the Wanderers Stadium. Steve Smith, back in South Africa for the first time since the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, top-scored with 45 for Australia, who made 196 for six after being sent in. South Africa made a bad start against the pace of Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins before Agar’s triple strike sent them hurtling to their all-time lowest T20 total of 89.