Port Elizabeth: South Africa suffered a big blow as their ace pacer Kagiso Rabada was on Friday fined 15 per cent of his match fee and also received one demerit point after being found guilty of Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel during the first day of the third Test against England here on Thursday.
Rabada was found to have violated Article 2.5 of the code, which relates to "using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his or her dismissal during an international match".
The charge relates to Rabada's actions following the dismissal of Joe Root. After the day's play, Rabada admitted to the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Andy Pycroft and, as such, there was no need for a formal hearing.
Rabada has now accumulated four demerit points in 24 months and will miss South Africa's next Test match. The four-match series is locked 1-1 and Rabada took two wickets on Day 1.
An unbeaten 76-run stand between Ben Stokes (38*) and Ollie Pope (39*) saw England end the opening day of the third Test against South Africa at 224/4 at the St. George's Park.
Opting to bat first, the visitors were off to a decent start before they lost three wickets within the span of 45 runs to give the hosts an edge. But Stokes and Pope then joined hands and denied the Proteas bowlers any further opportunity of making any inroads into the English batting.
