IPL 2025: Hardik Pandya gets fined for INR 12 Lakh after Gujarat Titans clash

Mumbai Indians captain and all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who missed out of the IPL 2025 season opener against Chennai Super Kings due to slow-over rate ban, was handed an INR 12 Lakh fine for another slow-over rate offence against Gujarat Titans on Saturday, March 29.

Playing his first game of the season at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, he couldn’t propel his team to victory as Mumbai Indians suffered a 36-run defeat to Gujarat Titans to bag two consecutive losses in the season.

“As this was his team’s first offence of the season under Article 2.2 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct, which pertains to minimum over-rate offences, Pandya was fined INR 12 lakhs,” a statement from the IPL read.

Notably, Suryakumar Yadav led the Mumbai Indians franchise in the team’s season opener against Chennai Super Kings in Hardik Pandya’s absence. They suffered a four-wicket loss in that encounter.

In their second game of the season, they won the toss and tasked GT to bat first. The Titans went on to post 196/8 in 20 overs, thanks to Sai Sudharsan's 63 off 41, Jos Buttler's 39 and Shubman Gill's 38.

Why was Hardik Pandya banned for the first game of IPL 2025?

After Mumbai Indians made an exit with a wooden spoon last year, Hardik Pandya was banned for the slow-over rate offence against the Lucknow Super Giants in the team’s last game of the season. 

Interestingly, it was his third offense in that season with slow-over rate, resulting in his ban as he was captaining the franchise. Furthermore, he was also fined an INR 30 Lakh match fee. Moreover, rest of the playing XI, including the impact player were fined Rs 12 lakh of 50 percent of their match fees.

However, before the start of the IPL 2025 season, BCCI had tweaked the rules for slow-over rate offences during the captains meeting at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai. According to the new rules, captains will only be handed demerit points and fines but will not serve match bans for slow-over rate offences.

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