New Zealand Women punished by ICC due to this massive reason

New Zealand Women's National Cricket Team have been penalized by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for maintaining a slow over-rate in the first T20I against Australia Women's National Cricket Team. The match took place on Thursday (19th September) in Mackay.

New Zealand Women's National Cricket Team were found to be one over short of the target after the allotted time, and hence, ICC decided to charge them. The Sophie Devine-led side have been fined by the governing body as each and every player of the team was fined 5% of their match fees.

They were fined under Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offenses, players are fined five percent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time.

On-field umpires Andrew Crozier and Troy Penman, third umpire Ben Treloar, and fourth umpire Daryl Brigham leveled the charge and Match Referee David Gilbert imposed the sanctions. New Zealand skipper Sophie Devine pled guilty to the offence and accepted the sanctions so there was no need for a formal hearing.

New Zealand Women In Trouble

The White Ferns aren't having a great time in the series. They have already lost the series with one match to go. They failed to get going with the bat and ball in two games and ended up losing both games by big margins against the Australia Women's National Cricket Team.

In the first game, New Zealand, who batted first, posted a total of 143 runs and also lost 7 wickets. Even with the ball, they failed to apply pressure on the opposition as they went on to lose the first game of the series by 5 wickets as Australia chased the target in just 18.4 overs.

In the second T20I, New Zealand came up with a great performance with the ball. They were right on the money as they bundled out Australia for 142 runs. Amelia Kerr was the pick of the bowlers as she bagged a four-wicket haul and returned with the figures of 4/20.

But they failed to get going with the bat as they lost wickets at regular intervals Suzie Bates (34) was the top run-maker for her team and got no support from the top and middle order. Maddy Green (22) fought hard in the end but couldn't carry on as Australia restricted the opposition to 113 runs to win the game by 29 runs.

With New Zealand losing both games so far, things look concerning for them going into the T20 World Cup 2024. Ahead of the series, skipper Sophie Devine admitted that with the tournament around, their focus is on the spin bowling. She had said:

"There’s been a real focus on spin bowling, which I’m sure everyone is going to focus on, but for us it’s about strike rate and scoring shot percentages. With the bat, we’re wanting to be really busy at the crease, we know that the conditions might be tough, so every run is going to be valuable."