IPL 2016: Virat Kohli fined for slow over rate

A fine of 12 lakh rupees was imposed on the Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli for maintaining slow over-rate during the team's Indian Premier League game against Rising Pune Supergiants last night. RCB won the game by 13 runs and registered their second win of the season.

The partnership between the skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers propelled the RCB total to 185 which looked decent on a track which was looking a bit slow in nature. Kohli scored a sensible 80 off 63 deliveries and De Villiers in his quintessential manner smashed 83 off just 46 balls as the duo held the innings together.

Chasing a target of 186, the MS Dhoni-led Pune team could only manage 172/8 in 20 overs even after heavy hitting from Thisara Perera and Rajat Bhatia at the end. From needing 50 off the last three overs, the duo scored 25 runs in the 18th over to raise Pune’s hopes as they needed 25 more in the final two overs. But they succumbed at the final hurdle losing four wickets for 11 runs to suffer their third defeat in four games.

"Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has been fined after the Bangalore team maintained a slow over rate during last evening's IPL 2016 match against Rising Pune Supergiants in Pune. Since it was his first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr. Kohli was fined Rs 12 lakh," the IPL said in a statement.

Pune who chose to bowl must rue the chances they missed as they dropped quite a few catches. Their left-arm spinner Ankit Sharma dropped a simple chance offered by Virat Kohli off Ravichandran’s Ashwin’s bowling and Kohli made them pay heavily after that.

While chasing, the Supergiants never seemed to get going as they lost two wickets quickly. They were reeling at 18 for 2 as after losing two of the main pillars of their batting Steve Smith and Faf du Plessis. Rahane and Dhoni somehow tried to revive the innings with a partnership but they failed to increase the scoring rate in the process.

However, a blitzkrieg from the Sri Lankan all-rounder Thisara Perera turned the game on its head as the Pune team required only 25 runs in 12 balls. But the Australian all-rounder Shane Watson had other ideas as he bowled an exceptional penultimate over in which he conceded just 4 runs and picked two wickets including the key wicket of Perera.

Kohli now has to be very careful about the over rate in the next few games as he has now committed the offence once.