Australia's Shane Watson and Pakistan's Wahab Riaz have been fined for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during the quarter-final clash between Australia and Pakistan in Adelaide on Friday. The confrontation between Watson and Wahab was one of the most memorable moments in the match in which Australia emerged victorious by six wickets, with Watson scoring 54 and Wahab emerging with figures of 9-0-54-2.
Watson was fined 15 percent of his match fee while Wahab was fined 50 percent of his match fee by match referee Ranjan Madugalle. The Australian allrounder breached Article 2.1.8 (a) of the ICC Code while the Pakistan pace bowler was found guilty of breaching Article 2.1.4 of the code which relates using a language or gesture which was found to be obscene or offensive during the match.
The pair were engaged in a memorable battle in Adelaide. Wahab was pumped up and in a memorable six-over spell, he got the wickets of David Warner and Michael Clarke. He greeted Watson with a series of pacy bouncers and had him in a tight spot at the start of the innings. However, the incident which led to the fine occured in the 33rd over when Watson spoke back to Wahab after the bowler had bowled another bouncer.
The charges were levelled by umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Marais Erasmus, third umpire Richard Illingworth and fourth umpire Billy Bowden. Explaining his decision, Madugalle stated, "It was an enthralling contest between Shane and Wahab, but in the closing stages of the match both players crossed that fine line between intense competition and unacceptable behaviour, and this resulted in the sanctions," he said.
Speaking in the post match press conference, Wahab stated that he was fired up after Watson had indulged in some talk while he was batting. "When I was batting Watson just came up to me and said, 'Are you holding a bat?' And that was going through my mind. I let him know that even he is having the bat, but he couldn't touch the ball. I know that nowadays, he's not good on the short ball. It was a plan of myself that we discussed in the team meeting," he said.
However, Michael Clarke has lavished praise on Wahab and said luck played a big factor during that hostile spell. "That spell by Wahab was as good as any I have faced in one-day cricket after a long time. Left-armers are always tough to face for right-hand batsmen because the ball comes on to you. If that catch off Watson had been taken, who knows what would have happened. This game would have been closer for sure."
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