Kolkata Knight Riders Captain Nitish Rana Penalised Rs 24 Lakh For Playing Slowly Against CSK

NEW DELHI: The Indian Premier League match between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings resulted in a punishment of Rs 24 lakh for skipper Nitish Rana for keeping a sluggish over-rate.

"As it was his team’s second offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Mr. Rana has been fined Rs. 24 lakh and each member of the Playing XI, including the impact substitute, is fined Rs. 6 lakh or 25 percent of the match fee, whichever is lesser,"IPL media advisory read.

To stay in contention for a play-off berth, KKR won the match by a margin of six wickets. The second-placed CSK is predicted to place in the top four and is now second in the standings.

First up, Chennai Super Kings were constrained by Kolkata Knight Riders spinners who fairly utilised the Chepauk district's conditions.

According to the rules of mathematics, the Knights should have won this game even more convincingly, which would have improved their net run rate.

Though they are on 15 points and still have a game to play, the Chennai Super Kings shouldn't be too badly harmed by this loss.They should have little trouble in qualification playoffs.

After crucial ball strikes by Varun Chakravarthy (2/36) and Sunil Narine (2/15), the Knight Riders' start was once again poor.

Deepak Chahar, a pacer, sent back the Knights' openers Jason Roy, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, and Impact Player Venkatesh Iyer (in exchange for Suyash Sharma's replacement as the leg-spinner).

The skipper Rana and Rinku then got to their feet.

For bowling the opening over during the run chase by the Rajasthan Royals against the Knights last Thursday, Rana received a lot of criticism. Yashasvi Jaiswal then destroyed him for 26 runs.

In this game that was on the line, the left-handed batter had to prove himself. This time, luck was on his side as well when Moeen Ali's bowling caused Matheesha Pathirana to drop him at the deep square-leg area.

Rana had reached 18 before that let-off, and the team had completed 71/3 in 10.1 overs.

With Rinku's assurance on the other end, though, he appeared stable and in control, relieving him of the burden.Rinku's maturity has undoubtedly been one of KKR's strengths, despite the team's less than stellar season.

The left-hander was not just selective in his shot choice, but also quick enough to recognise when there was width available and room to take a chance with his arms. In a stylish move, he reached fifty by driving a yorker-length Pathirana delivery through mid-wicket for four.

Dew did make CSK's bowlers' task a little bit more challenging in the second half.

However, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain, made a mistake by delaying the introduction of the in-form Pathirana into the assault.Although CSK won the toss and decided to bat, one thing that went in their favour was Shivam Dube's contribution (48 not out off 34 balls).

Previously, Rana was fined for violating the IPL Code of Conduct after the top batter and Hrithik Shokeen of the Mumbai Indians (MI) got into a heated argument during the current season of the richest T20 competition in the globe. Rana acknowledged the Level 1 Offence in violation of Article 2.21 of the IPL's Code of Conduct, and the KKR captain was penalised with a fine equal to 25% of his match money at the time.

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