England may have prevailed in the thrilling third Test of the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy against India but it came at a cost. Ben Stokes’ side have been docked two World Test Championship (WTC) points for their slow over rate during the 22-run victory at Lord’s also fined 10 percent of their match fees. England’s points tally has thus fallen from 24 to 22 and former India head coach Ravi Shastri has said that these deductions do matter.
“It hurts, as Australia found out in the first cycle of the World Test Championship,” he said on the ICC review. Australia had been docked points due to over rate in the second Test of the 2020/21 series at home against India. They ended up finishing third behind eventual champions New Zealand on the table. “They had a slow over rate against India and it cost them the second place. New Zealand qualified for that final,” said Shastri.
However, Shastri also said that while teams need to be aware of their over rate, England’s docked points might not matter much if they keep winning.
“So you’ve got to be fully aware about all this, there will be certain games where they will probably make up for it. But I think more than the over rate, you have to think of winning. If you focus on that, then come the last six months, you can probably try and just, get those points or something of that sort. You’ve got to win. That is more important. If you keep winning, that won’t matter,” he said.
England staved off a sensational resistance from the Indian lower order to win by 22 runs and take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Chasing a target of 193, India were reduced to 82/7 in the first session of the final day. Ravindra Jadeja then became the anchor as India’s last three wickets batted for 50.1 overs and took the match right into the second half of the final session. It all ended rather freakishly, though, with Mohammed Siraj falling to Shoaib Bashir due to the ball dribbling behind him to the stumps despite coming off the middle of his bat.
