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England’s red-ball captain Ben Stokes has taken a jibe at the International Cricket Council (ICC) after the side were fined and handed three-point deduction for maintaining slow over-rate in their opening Test against New Zealand in Christchurch. The England batter, who played a crucial knock, scoring 80 off 146 deliveries, claimed that match finished early with 10 hours still remaining.
Ben Stokes hits out at ICC after being docked of three points in WTC standings
With the World Test Championship (WTC) qualification scenario going intense with only a few Test matches left for each side, the ICC on Tuesday, December 3 handed England and New Zealand with point deductions for maintaining slow over-rate, thus dismantling their position in the points table. However, both skippers have accepted the charges and proposed sanctions, the English captain stood up on the stance.
Ben Stokes took to his Instagram handle to hit out at ICC. “Good on ICC (accompanied by three shrugging emojis). Finishing the game with 10 hours of play still left,” he captioned the story.
Speaking after the penalty to England and New Zealand, the latter's points percentage stands at 47.92, whereas England too are more or less out of the finals race, sitting at sixth place with 42.50 points percentage.Furthermore, it is to be seen that with two Tests remaining for New Zealand, they could reach at the best possible percentage of 55.36, making them to rely on other team’s results.
