Abhishek Sharma fined for showing dissent at umpire's decision in KKR clash

Sunrisers Hyderabad opener Abhishek Sharma had been fined 25% of his match fee from the game against Kolkata Knight Riders which was played at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 2. He has been fined for showing dissent at the umpire's decision.

The incident unfolded on the fourth delivery of the ninth over when Abhishek hit a ball from Blessing Muzarabani, straight down to Varun Chakravarthy's throat at deep square leg. Varun dived in front and took a good catch. However, Abhishek wasn't convinced with the cleanliness of the catch and chose to stay back before the two on-field umpires, Vinod Seshan and Saidarshan Kumar, discussed and referred it to the third umpire, Nitin Menon. Menon scrutinized the catch from all possible angles and even zoomed at it to get a clear view of whether Varun had his fingers underneath the ball while completing the catch.

After multiple replays, Menon, gratified with the cleanliness of the catch adjudged Abhishek out as the signal appeared on the giant screen at the venue. However, Abhishek appeared visibly shocked and exasperated with the call. He has also accumulated one demerit point for breaching the IPL Code of Conduct.

However , Abhishek had admitted to the Level 1 offence under Article 2.3 and accepted the match referee, Shakti Singh's sanction.

Significantly, for Level 1 breaches of the Code of Conduct, the match referee's decision is final and binding.

Meanwhile, Abhishek looked in a menacing touch against KKR, smashing 48 off just 21 deliveries. He added a valuable 82-run stand alongside his opening partner Travis Head in just 5.4 overs.

Abhishek's innings was studded with four boundaries and as many maximums and got SRH off to the dream start they were itching for. The partnership between Head and Abhishek laid the foundation of SRH's 226-run total.

In reply, KKR fought valiantly but two run outs cost them the game. They lost their overseas signing Cameron Green and wicketkeeper batter Angkrish Raghuwanshi to two horrible mix-ups and ended up losing the game by a comprehensive margin of 65 runs.