ICC punishes Pakistan third time in a row for repeated offence, captain Mohammad Rizwan pleads guilty, accepts sanction
ICC takes strict action against Mohammad Rizwan and co after Pakistan keep on committing the same mistakes.
Things are going from bad to worse for Pakistan. Mohammad Rizwan and co recently suffered a whitewash in the three-match ODI series against New Zealand. Now, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has slapped a sanction after the visitors failed to learn from their mistakes. Pakistan have been fined 5 per cent of their match fees owing to a slow over-rate in the third ODI in Mount Maunganui.
This is the third time in a row that Pakistan have been penalised for maintaining a slow over-rate. Jeff Crowe of the ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction.
In the third and final ODI against Blackcaps, Pakistan were ruled to be one over short of the stipulated target with time allowances taken into consideration.
According to the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which deals with minimum over-rate offences, players are fined five per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the stipulated time.
Pakistan captain Mohammad Rizwan pleaded guilty. The charges were levelled by field umpires Chris Brown and Paul Reiffel, along with third umpire Michael Gough and fourth umpire Wayne Knights.
Pakistan's disastrous tour of New Zealand
Pakistan played eight white-ball matches (five T20Is and three ODIs) against New Zealand. The visitors were able to win just one T20I. The side lost the five-match T20I series 1-4 and three-match ODI series 0-3.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan were not in the T20I squad. However, the experienced duo returned for the ODI series.
After the loss in the final ODI, Rizwan urged his side to show more professionalism. "If you look at the games we've played, we've been able to hold the teams till 40 overs. We're losing the plot after that," Rizwan told reporters.
"Hopefully, all of us, alongside the management, can work towards having the same effort till the 50th over that we put in the initial 30-35 overs," he added.
