ECB

Picture Credit: Twitter/@englandcricket

England Team have been found guilty for an offence during the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's which ended in a draw. Match referee Chris Board has imposed the sanction on Joe Root's side for maintaining slow over-rate during the course of the match. England were notably found two overs short of the target after all the time allowances and other factors were taken into consideration.

Joe Root pleads guilty to the offence

England had a very poor over rate mostly because of the fact that they played with four front-line seamers in the form of James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Mark Wood and Ollie Robinson. While captain Joe Root did roll his arm around and bowled his off-spin bowling to improve the over-rate, it was just not enough for England in the end.

Reflecting on the same, ICC said in an official statement, "In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 percent of their match fees for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time. "

On-field umpires Michael Gough and Richard Kettleborough, third umpire Richard Illingworth and fourth umpire Mike Burns leveled the charges on England. Considering the side fell short of two overs, a fine of 40 percent of the match fees of players for the first Test was announced on Monday. As skipper Joe Root pleaded guilty to the offence, it was confirmed that there was no need of any formal hearing on the same and the case has been closed.