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Captain Kohli fined for slow over rate

Insult added to injury as skipper cops $24,000 fine following Bangalore's stunning loss to Chennai

Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli has endured a 24 hours to forget, handed a fine for an over rate offence following his side's crushing defeat to Chennai Super Kings in Wednesday night's IPL action. 

Kohli was penalised after his side failed to bowl their overs within the stipulated time at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, continuing an alarming trend in the tournament; of the 24 matches played to date, just two have been completed in the allotted time frame. 

Watch all 33 sixes as Dhoni, ABdV go off

"As it was his team's first offence of the season under the IPL's Code of Conduct relating to minimum over-rate offences, Kohli was fined Rs 12 lakh (approx AUD$24,000)," an IPL press release said.

The ever-increasing length of IPL matches was brought to light recently with the ECB's announcement of '100-ball cricket', a concept the English game's director of cricket Andrew Strauss noted would allow for a game to be completed in a shorter window. 

England's T20 Blast was the shortest 20-over domestic competition in the world during the 2017 and 2017-18 seasons, according to cricket statistician Ric Finlay.

The average T20 Blast innings went for 85 minutes during the 2017 season, meaning a T20 match in the United Kingdom is on average more than 40 minutes shorter than an IPL game, which was ranked the slowest of any domestic tournament.

"T20 has become a longer and longer format of the game," Strauss said. "It is more than four hours in a lot of parts of the world.

"We want kids to be able to go to bed earlier and it is worth saying it is going to be on terrestrial TV. We want the more casual audience."

Kohli's Bangalore side is now two wins from six matches and sitting in sixth position, after his India teammate MS Dhoni engineered a stunning run chase. 

Dhoni made 70no from just 34 balls, smashing the ball into the crowd seven times, including to seal the winning runs, in a match that racked up a record number of IPL sixes as his Super Kings passed Bangalore's 8-205 with two balls to spare.

 
Dhoni knock guides CSK to top of IPL table

The two sides hit 33 sixes in all - 17 for Chennai, 16 for RCB - to beat the previous IPL record of 31. That mark was first set by Delhi Daredevils and Gujarat Lions last year and matched by Chennai and Kolkata Knight Riders earlier this month.

The all-time record for a T20 match is the 34 sixes hit by New Zealand teams Central Districts and Otago in 2016.

The win took Dhoni's side, returning to the IPL after a two year corruption ban, to the top of the IPL table with five wins from six games. 

Australian viewers can watch the 2018 season of the IPL exclusively on Fox Sports