After facing an embarrassing loss against Mumbai Indians (MI), Steve Smith, the Rajasthan Royals (RR) captain, had another reason to be disappointed as he was fined for maintaining slow over-rate in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday (October 6).
Smith was fined INR 12 lakh for the over-rate offence as it was his first in the ongoing IPL 2020.
“As it was his team’s first offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr Smith was fined Rs 12 lakh,” stated an IPL media release.
The Royals lost to MI by 57 runs, bundled out for 136 in a mammoth chase of 194. Smith could only score 6 runs and was one of four wickets scalped by Jasprit Bumrah.
“I think losing wickets early doesn’t help, we haven’t been able to get off to a good start in the last three games. Outside of Jos [Buttler] and Archer at the end, we have a bit of work to do on our batting.
“I don’t think we need to panic too much, it is just about implementing our plans and playing some good cricket for longer.
“We haven’t been able to do that in the last three games and we have to turn it around quickly. Hopefully, get a bit of momentum,” Smith said at the post-match presentation.
RR have slipped to the seventh position on the points table with 2 wins from 5 games while MI dethroned Delhi Capitals (DC) from the top spot with their third win in succession.
Smith & Co. will next face DC on October 9 in Sharjah while MI have a 5-day break before they lock horns with Shreyas Iyer’s side on October 11 in Abu Dhabi.
