Royal Challengers Bangalore fast bowler, Tim Southee was reprimanded for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct during his team’s Indian Premier League encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday 17th May, 2018. Southee admitted to the Level 1 offence under Article 2.1.8 of the IPL Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials and accepted the sanction. For Level 1 breaches of the IPL Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding. Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 14 runs in yet another thrilling encounter. After being asked to bat first, RCB posted a mammoth total of 218/6, courtesy of a brilliant 107-run stand between AB De Villiers and Moeen Ali. Chasing the target, SRH remained in the hunt until the 17th over when Tim Southee bowled a game-changing over where he conceded just 6 runs. While the BCCI’s release did not mention the reason behind the sanction it seems like the Kiwi pacer’s post-match comments on being denied a catch by the TV umpire led to the punishment.
Southee took a brilliant catch of Alex Hales which was denied by the third umpire despite the on-field umpire’s soft signal declaring the batsman out. Reacting to the decision, Southee spoke after the match and said, “I thought that catch was taken cleanly, it looks a lot worse on TV but it’s the third umpire’s decision and in the end we won the game which was more important.”
Reflecting on his team’s performance, Southee further added, “You sometimes put too much focus on the end result but we just do our thing and the end takes care of itself. The way AB, Mo (Ali) and Colin set the game up was superb and then we pulled it back well at the death. We obviously have two world class players (Virat and AB), but we had useful hands from Moeen who hasn’t played a lot and similarly from Colin who finished it off brilliantly at the end. Games like these and the one against Mumbai give us a lot of confidence.”
