On Sunday (January 23), Team India lost their ODI series 0-3 to South Africa, on top of this, the visitors were also fined 40% of their match fee for maintaining a slow over rate against the hosts in the final ODI at Cape Town.

South Africa won the final match by 4 runs to clean sweep India 3-0 in the ODIs, after defeating them 2-1 in the Test series. ICC said that the KL Rahul-led India was “two overs short of the target” after taking all the time allowances into consideration.

Also Read: Joe Root bags ICC Men’s Test Cricketer of the Year award for 2021

"Andy Pycroft of the Emirates ICC Elite Panel of Match Referees imposed the sanction after KL Rahul's side was ruled to be two overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration.

"In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined 20 per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time," ICC said in a release on Monday.

There was no need for a formal hearing as India’s stand-in skipper Rahul pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction. On-field umpires Marais Erasmus and Bongani Jele, third umpire Allauhudien Palekar and fourth umpire Adrien Holdstock levelled the charge.

South Africa scored 287 runs in the final ODI with Quinton de Kock hitting 124 and Rassie van der Dussen scoring a 52 in the process.

India lost the match by a small margin of 4 runs despite the half-centuries from Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Deepak Chahar.