Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma has been fined after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their IPL 2021 match against Delhi Capitals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on April 20 (Tuesday). Meanwhile, after winning two matches at a stretch, the defending champions went down against Delhi Capitals by six wickets.
Batting first, Mumbai Indians got off to a flying start before the middle order collapsed for the fourth time in a row. From 67/1 in the seventh over with Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav looking really good, it was down to the same old Chepauk story – spinners ripping it big. The pitch suddenly looked different, and the batters just crumbled to end up losing five wickets for 17 runs at one stage.
And had it not been for some sensible batting from Jayant Yadav, who was playing the first game of IPL 2021, it could’ve been worse. However, the night belonged to Amit Mishra, who produced a four-fer and mixing it up really well to outfox the batsmen.
Rohit Sharma fined for slow over-rate
In reply, Shikhar Dhawan once again steered the run chase with a 45-run knock. Steve Smith and Lalit Yadav also held their nerves to survive the middle-overs when the bowlers showed signs of troubling the batters. The game turned into a scrap until the final couple of overs when Delhi Capitals lost a couple of wickets in a cluster. A couple of oversteps by Jasprit Bumrah made things difficult which took the result in favour of Rishabh Pant & Co.
Meanwhile, more trouble waited for Rohit Sharma as the match referee slapped him with a fine for breaching the code of conduct. It was his team’s first offense of IPL 2021 and thus, he was fined ₹12 lakhs.
“Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has been fined after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 match against Delhi Capitals at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on April 20,” the statement said.
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 Sharma was fined Rs 12 lakh,” the statement added.
