Knight Riders pace bowler Harshit Rana has been fined 60 per cent of his match fees after he celebrated overenthusiastically during his side’s close victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday (Mar 23).
Rana was found in breach of the IPL Code of Conduct for his actions. He committed two Level 1 offences under Article 2.4. He was fined 10 per cent and 50 per cent of his match fees for the two respective offences.
What did Rana do?
After KKR set a daunting target of 209, courtesy of a powerful knock from Andre Russell, SRH openers Mayank Agarwal and Abhishek Sharma provided an equally stellar start. The duo took on Mitchell Starc, Varun Chakravarthy, as well as Rana and stitched a 60-run opening stand in no time.
Rana, who was denied Agarwal’s wicket in the second over due to DRS, returned just before the end of mandatory powerplay overs and got the scalp of the right-hander.
The racer dug a short one into the deck which was miscued by Agarwal straight down the throat of the fielder at deep square leg. As the Indian batter trudged to the pavilion, Rana gave him a stare-down before blowing a kiss on his face, in a rather mocking manner.
What BCCI said?
“Kolkata Knight Riders bowler Harshit Rana has been fined a total of 60 per cent of his match fees for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during his team’s Tata Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on March 23,” a statement from the BCCI read.
“Rana committed two Level 1 offences under Article 2.5 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct. He was fined 10 per cent and 50 per cent of his match fees for the two respective offences. Rana admitted to the two offences and accepted the Match Referee’s sanction. For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding,” it added.
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Rana’s action invited criticism from commentators with former opener Sunil Gavaskar saying it was totally unnecessary.
“He should not have done that. Did the batsman do anything to him when he was hitting him for sixes? Cricket can be played without these antics. It’s the age of television. I understand that. Celebrate with your teammates but no need for such antics for the opposition,” Gavaskar said on-air.
Rana came back to bowl the last over and defended 13 runs as KKR narrowly avoided a defeat when it looked like Heinrich Klassen would pull off the impossible.