Harshit Rana (Source -twitter/X)
Kolkata Knight Riders bowler Harshit Rana has been fined a total of 60 percent of his match fees for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during his team’s Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Eden Gardens, Kolkata on March 23.
Rana committed two Level 1 offences under Article 2.5 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct. He was fined 10 percent and 50 percent of his match fees for the two respective offences. Rana admitted to the two offences and accepted the Match Referee’s sanction. For Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding.
Notably, Rana celebrated aggressively while blowing a flying kiss in Mayank Agarwal’s face after dimissing him in the sixth over of the game. The senior batter had to walk back after scoring 32 runs as Rinku Singh caught him of Rana’s bowling. Rana’s antics invited a lot of criticm as even Sunil Gavaskar added that there was no need to do this.
Talking about the match, KKR posted 208 runs on the board on the back of Andre Russell’s heroics (64 off 25). Phil Salt also added 54 runs at the top and hence, KKR could breach the 200-run mark. However, SRH fell four runs short despite Heinrich Klaasen’s tremendous efforts (63 off 29). Starc’s 19th over turned out to be too expensive with sixes raining but Harshit Rana kept his calm intact to bowl a stunning final over to win the game for his side.