Rajasthan Royals’ star and veteran Indian all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin was fined 25% of his match fee recently as he was found guilty of breaching the Indian Premier League (IPL) Code of Conduct after his controversial comments on a decision that the umpires took in Chennai Super Kings’ clash against Rajasthan Royals at the IPL 2023
After Rajasthan defeated Chennai, Ashwin came on, asking strongly why the match officials changed the ball during the run chase without the bowling side asking for it. “I’m quite surprised the umpires changed the ball for dew on their own. It’s never happened before, and I’m quite surprised,” Ashwin said in the post-match press conference.
Following his comments, Ashwin was deemed to have breached Article 2.7, which prohibits players from openly criticising the match officials or making an inappropriate comment about any incident occurring in a match.
MS Dhoni’s valiant effort in vain as RR breached fortress Chepauk
Talking about the game, Rajasthan Royals took on Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium on Wednesday, April 12. Coming in to bat first, star England batter Jos Buttler built on his excellent form, amassing 52 runs to his name in 36 deliveries.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Shimron Hetmyer, and Devdutt Padikkal also played decent knocks as they propelled the visitors to a total of 175 runs after 20 overs. During the run-chase, man-in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad failed to score big as he was dismissed by Sandeep Sharma for just eight runs.
However, Devon Conway came through for the four-time champions, scoring a brilliant half-century under pressure. After Rahane’s knock, the match came down the wire as skipper MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja stood at the crease and looked to chase down 19 runs in the last over.
However, despite a fabulous knock by both batters, the task proved to be too much to handle for Chennai, as Rajasthan won the game by three runs and moved to the top of the IPL points table.