Sri Lanka skipper faces over rate ban

Sri Lanka face the prospect of losing stand-in captain Upul Tharanga for their next two Champions Trophy matches after the islanders took more than four hours to bowl their overs against South Africa.

The bowling effort was labelled "ridiculous" by former New Zealand skipper and international coach Stephen Fleming and threatens to derail the Sri Lankans' tournament.

Tharanga filled in as Sri Lanka skipper after regular leader Angelo Mathews failed to overcome a calf problem for their tournament opener against the Proteas at The Oval on Saturday.

The Sri Lankans were 37 minutes over time bowling their 50 overs, with a Hashim Amla century powering South Africa to 6-299.

International Cricket Council playing conditions for one-day matches dictate that teams should be finished their overs within 3.5 hours, but it took the Sri Lankans four hours and seven minutes.

Sri Lanka were in the midst of the 44th over when the clock hit 2pm local (11pm AEST) for their allotted time.

With still six overs to be bowled when their time was up, Sri Lanka now face the prospect of being in hit with a "serious over rate offence" by the ICC.

Under the governing body’s Code of Conduct for the tournament, the sanctions for a serious breach – which is where a side is deemed more than two overs short of the over rate – are hefty, and costly.

If the ICC does confirm a serious over-rate breach, the Code of Conduct sanctions stipulates Sri Lanka's players would lose 10 per cent of their match fee per over short for the first two overs, and 20 per cent of their match fee for each additional over they were deemed short.

If they are confirmed the full six overs short, that would equate to 100 per cent of the Sri Lanka players' match fee.

For the captain, the penalty is two suspension points, which equates to two ODIs. If confirmed, that would rule Tharanga out of Sri Lanka's matches against India and Pakistan but he could return for the semi-finals should the team qualify.

On-field umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould will make their report on over rates after the match against South Africa, and match referee David Boon, the former Australia top-order batsman, will decide if sanctions are warranted.

South Africa captain AB de Villiers was hit for a minor over rate offence in the pre-tournament bilateral series against England, but that strike against his name does not carry into the ICC event.

Regardless, de Villiers was forthright about his responsibilities with over rates on match eve.

"We've pinpointed areas where we can get better at," de Villiers said.

"We just learned the first 10 to 15 overs, where not a lot of fielding changes happen, so there's no excuse to get behind the red in the first 10 to 15 overs.

"Of course, the game is pretty slow then, anyway.

"So we've targeted that as an area where we can make up time, get four, five minutes ahead of time, which it does get a bit complicated at the end when there's a partnership going.

"It's no excuse and it's something we will get right in this tournament. It's just non-negotiable."

Champions Trophy 2017 Guide

Squads: Every Champions Trophy nation

Schedule

1 June – England beat Bangladesh by eight wickets

2 June – New Zealand v Australia, No Result

3 June – Sri Lanka v South Africa, The Oval (D)

4 June – India v Pakistan, Edgbaston (D)

5 June – Australia v Bangladesh, The Oval (D/N)

6 June – England v New Zealand, Cardiff (D)

7 June – Pakistan v South Africa, Edgbaston (D/N)

8 June – India v Sri Lanka, The Oval (D)

9 June – New Zealand v Bangladesh, Cardiff (D)

10 June – England v Australia, Edgbaston (D)

11 June – India v South Africa, The Oval (D)

12 June – Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Cardiff (D)

14 June – First semi-final (A1 v B2), Cardiff (D)

15 June – Second semi-final (A2 v B1), Edgbaston (D)

18 June – Final, The Oval (D)

19 June – Reserve day (D)