Mahendra Singh Dhoni handed one-match ban due to slow-over rate in first Test against England
Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Indian World Cup winning skipper is handed one-match Test ban as long as his team increases their bowling over-rate in the ongoing Test series against England at Lord’s, started on July 21, 2011.
According to International Cricket Council (ICC) code of conduct, if a team is found guilty of slow-over bowling rate thrice a year, the skipper of that team faces one-match ban.
Dhoni’s men have already breached the code of conduct twice, earlier this year, as they failed to follow the required over rate during January in third Test match against South Africa and in the recent game against West Indies
in Barbados.
Media reports have revealed that India in the ongoing Test series against the hosts recorded an over-rate of 13 per hour instead of the required 15.
The world’s no.1 Test team lost the first Test to host by 193 and ten wickets. English took a brilliant batting start and set a target of 480 runs for the tourists. Kevin Pietersen played a key role in setting the big target for
the opponents, as he scored marvellous unbeaten 202 runs off 326 balls, including 21 boundaries and one six. In the same way, Jonathan Trott and Matt Prior hit useful innings of 70 and 71 runs.
On the contrary, India’s batting start was not as impressive, and they were all out in their first innings, at 286.Gautam Gambhir just scored 15 runs and fell a victim to Broad’s delivery. While, Abhinave Mukhund scored 49 runs
off 88 balls before he was bowled by pacer, Broad.
The batting icon Sachin Tendulkar, who was just one century behind, for completing his 100 ton, was expected to achieve the feat in the game, but in form Broad dismissed the little maestro on just 34 off 58 balls. Tendulkar’s highest
score on the Lord’s pitches is 37.
Rahul Dravid became the star of his team for hitting unbeaten 103 runs off 220 balls, including 15 fours. Suraish Raina, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma failed in their batting and went for ducks.
The second Test match between India and England will be played on 29 July at Trent Bridge Nottingham.