Mumbai Indians’ start to IPL 2019 turned bad to worse when their captain Rohit Sharma was fined Rs 12 lakh after his team maintained a slow over-rate during their IPL match against Kings XI Punjab at Mumbai on Saturday.
"As it was his team's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Sharma was fined Rs 12 lakh," the IPL said in a media release.
Mumbai were comprehensively beaten in the match by Kings XI Punjab by 8 wickets to suffer their second loss in three matches.
Rohit, for his part, looked good during his brief stay at the crease, scoring 32 off 18 balls with five fours. He added 51 for the opening stand with De Kock.
KL Rahul, however, took the game away from the hosts with his unbeaten 71 off 57 balls. KXIP reached the 177-run target in only 18.4 overs. The India international hit six fours and a six but what stood out was the manner in which he paced his innings.
Rahul was ably supported by Chris Gayle( 40 off 24 balls) and Mayank Agarwal(43 off 21).
Earlier, Quinton de Kock hit six boundaries and two sixes in his 60-run knocks off 39 balls. Hardik Pandya smashed 31 off 19 balls to enable MI to get past 175-run mark but it wasn’t enough.