Indian pacer Harshit Rana has been reprimanded by the International Cricket Council (ICC) after the first ODI in Ranchi against South Africa. Rana had a demerit point added to his disciplinary record after his send-off to Dewald Brevis, who was one of his three victims on the night. As per ICC, Rana breached Article 2.5 of the Code of Conduct after his gesture towards Brevis with a finger pointing towards the dressing room. It was a big wicket for India as Brevis could have changed the game single-handedly and Rana was expectedly joyous.
Article 2.5 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel relates to "using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his/her dismissal during an International Match."
"The action was deemed that it could have provoked an aggressive response from the batter, with Harshit receiving one demerit point added to his disciplinary record," the ICC statement read. The incident took place in the 22nd over of the innings when Brevis was taking the attack to the Indian bowlers, having already hit three sixes and a couple of boundaries. Rana bowled it full outside off and Brevis didn't keep it on the ground.
He hit it straight to the sweeper cover fielder. Apart from the gesture, Rana also chirped a few words at outgoing Brevis as the pacer got his third of the night. Rana had begun the procession with two wickets in the same over, having dismissed Ryan Rickelton and Quinton de Kock in the same over.
After Harshit's exploits in the first half of the innings, it was Kuldeep Yadav, who, despite going for runs, provided India with crucial breakthroughs and his twin strikes of Matthew Breetzke and Marco Jansen, both set batters in the same over, was probably the game-changer. Corbin Bosch still gave a fight but had a little too much to do in the end.
India won the series opener by 17 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the series.
