Mumbai Indians’ captain Hardik Pandya was fined INR 12 lakh on Thursday for maintaining a slow over-rate against Punjab Kings. Pandya, who has already been in hot waters for various reasons this IPL, also had to encounter this financial dig.
The Kings won the toss and elected to chase. MI posted 192 on the board with the help of Suryakumar Yadav’s 78 and decent contributions from other batters. PBKS failed to chase as MI marked their third win, winning by a bare margin of nine runs while maintaining a slow over rate.
In a press conference, the IPL added,
“Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians captain, has been fined after his team maintained a slow over rate during their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match against Punjab Kings at the PCA New International Cricket Stadium, Mullanpur on April 18,”
“As it was his team’s first offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over rate offences, Pandya was fined Rs 12 lakhs,” it added.
Notably, MI are placed seventh on the leaderboard with three out of seven wins. They had a poor start to their IPL 2024 campaign, however, out of their last five matches, they have emerged victorious on three occasions. They boast six points and a net run rate of -0.133.
One of the reasons why Pandya is facing backlash is his return to the MI squad but as a captain. He replaced Rohit Sharma, who has won five trophies for the side. It was reported that it was Pandya’s condition to return to his old IPL franchise to remove Sharma as the captain, bringing himself to the helm.
For the 2022 and 2023 seasons, the all-rounder donned the Gujarat Titans jersey, and also won the trophy as a captain in the franchise’s debut season. Pandya’s individual performance is also taking a toll. He owns only 141 runs from seven innings from 96 balls while he is not bowling much this season.
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