Port Elizabeth, Jan 17:  South Africa pace ace Kagiso Rabada was on Friday fined 15 per cent of his match fee and also received one demerit point after being found guilty of a Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel during the first day of the third Test against England here on Thursday.

Advertisement

The South African bowler was found to have violated Article 2.5 of the code, which relates to "using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his or her dismissal during an international match".

Advertisement

The charge relates to Rabada's actions following the dismissal of Joe Root. After the day's play, Rabada admitted to the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Andy Pycroft and, as such, there was no need for a formal hearing.

Rabada has now accumulated four demerit points in a 24 month period and will miss South Africa's next Test match. The four-match series is locked 1-1 and Rabada took two wickets on Day 1.

An unbeaten 76-run stand between Ben Stokes (38*) and Ollie Pope (39*) saw England end the opening day of the third Test against South Africa at 224/4 at the St. George's Park.

Opting to bat first, the visitors were off to a decent start before they lost three wickets within the span of 45 runs to give the hosts an edge. But Stokes and Pope then joined hands and denied the Proteas bowlers any further opportunity of making any inroads into the English batting.

Advertisement

About the Author

Saurabh Sharma
An ardent cricket fan, Saurabh is covering cricket for last 12 years. He has started his professional journey with the Hindi publication, Navbharat Times (Times of India Group). Later on, he moved to TV (Sadhna News). In 2014, he joined Cricketnmore. Currently, he is serving as the editor of cricketnmore.com. His grasp on cricket statistics and ability to find an interesting angle in a news story make him a perfect fit for the online publishing business. He is also acting as a show producer for our ongoing video series - Cricket Tales, Cricket Flashback, & Cricket Trivia Read More
Latest Cricket News