IPL 2018: Tim Southee Reprimanded For Level 1 Offence

Tim Southee, the Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer, has been reprimanded for a Level 1 offence under Article 2.1.8 of the IPL Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials on Thursday (May 17).

The Kiwi star faced the sanction for his conduct during the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. Southee admitted to the offence and accepted the sanction, a BCCI media release stated on Friday. The board, however, did not give the details of the incident that led to the sanction.

But it is understood that Southee faced the disciplinary action for his reaction towards the television umpire after the latter turned down a catch claimed by him in the third over. On the fifth ball of the third over, Alex Hales hit one towards deep square leg where Southee was positioned. He came running in and swooped low to take the catch. The onfield umpires declared it out in soft signal but the third umpire went on to change the decision.

Southee could not refrain from expressing his dismay while Virat Kohli was seen having  an animated chat with the onfield officials.

‘Royal Challengers gave Sunrisers a Royal beating’

Well, the decision did not turn out costly as Royal Challengers beat the Sunrisers by 14 runs to stay in contention for playoff spot. Asked to bat first, the Royal Challengers rode on whirlwind fifties from AB de Villiers and Moeen Ali to post a daunting 218 for 6 in the allotted 20 overs.

The Royal Challengers were off to a poor start. Sandeep Sharma accounted for Parthiv Patel for just 1 before Rashid Khan sent back Virat Kohli for 12. However, de Villiers and Moeen Ali added 107 runs for the third wicket to help Royal Challengers recover from the shaky start. Rashid broke the stand by dismissing de Villiers. The South Africa star scored 69 off 39 with the help of 12 fours and a six. 4 runs later, Moeen departed after scoring 65 off 34. Colin de Grandhomme then blasted 40 off just 17 while Sarfraz Khan slammed 22 off 8 to finish proceedings strongly.

In reply, Sunrisers put up a good fight courtesy of fifties from Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey. But they eventually fell short by 14 runs.