Australia and India were imposed with a heavy fine for maintaining a slow over-rate during the WTC 2023 Final. India lost early wickets while chasing a mammoth 444-run target and were eventually bowled out on just 234 runs.
India and Australia Fined by ICC
The two teams were running 34 overs short coming into the fifth and final day. This was when there had been no interruption during the match with rain or any other reason.
India have been fined the full match fee for their slow over rate and Australia have been docked 80 percent of their match fees.
India were ruled to be five overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration, while Australia were found to be four overs short.
In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, players are fined 20 percent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.
Winning the toss, India opted to bowl first and that too particularly without the world’s top-ranked Test bowler – spinner Ravichandran Ashwin.
With Australia 76/3 at one stage it looked as if India’s selection could be the right one. But an unbroken 251-run stand between Head and Smith helped Australia to 469 at the close, leaving India on the back foot in the game.
Earlier, Bowling coach Paras Mhambrey backs Indian bowlers after an unimpressive first day in WTC 2023 final and explains the reason for the exclusion of Ashwin from the playing 11.
While on the other hand, the Australian bowling attack came out strong, reducing India to 151-5 by stumps on day two. Pat Cummins drew first blood by removing Rohit Sharma, while Scott Boland and Cameron Green showcased their skills to dismiss Shubman Gill and Chiteshwar Pujara, respectively.
Rohit Sharma who opened the inning along with Gill failed to make an impact in India’s 1st inning. Rohit lost his wicket for 15 runs in the 6th over bowled by Pat Cummins.
The left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc generated extra bounce to dismiss Virat Kohli for 14 runs while Lyon dismissed Jadeja for 48 runs. India ended up scoring 269 runs in their first innings.
Australia scored 270 runs in their second inning and declared the match. India’s top-order batters once again failed to score big and ended up the inning with a score of 234 and lost the match by 209 runs.
This is the second time where India loses the WTC Final. In the first edition, India loses the trophy to New Zealand while in the second edition, India loses the trophy to Australia.
