The no-ball that wasn't, crowd trouble, Klaasen fined for 'inappropriate comment'

There was an unsavoury moment during Sunrisers Hyderabad's innings against Lucknow Super Giants when an object was thrown from the stands, forcing the umpires to intervene.

The incident took place in the 19th over of the innings, shortly after a decision by the third umpire to overturn a no-ball call - off the bowling of Avesh Khan - given by the on-field umpire for a full toss. Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad were the batters at the crease and they both made their displeasure evident, Klaasen more than Samad.

Klaasen hit the next ball for four, but after that there was a stoppage when the object was hurled at Super Giants batter Prerak Mankad, according to Jonty Rhodes.

Rhodes, the Super Giants fielding coach, tweeted that the object hit Mankad on the head while he was fielding at long-on, close to the Super Giants dugout.

Speaking to the broadcaster after the innings, Klaasen said that the episode broke the Sunrisers batters' momentum, and added his criticism of the umpiring.

"Disappointed with the crowd. That's not what you want from a crowd. It broke a lot of momentum," Klaasen said. "Hopefully the umpires stay consistent. Not great umpiring."

He was later fined 10% of his match fees for breaching the IPL code of conduct. The official IPL statement didn't specify the reason for the penalty, only saying, "Klaasen admitted to the Level 1 Offence under Article 2.7 which states the use of public criticism/inappropriate comment in the IPL's Code of Conduct."

Super Giants' Amit Mishra was also found guilty of breaching the code of conduct, but he just faced a reprimand. "Mr Mishra admitted to level 1 offence under Article 2.2 of IPL's Code of Conduct which states abuse of equipment during the match. Mr Mishra accepted the sanction," the statement said.

A similar incident had taken place very early in IPL 2023 when R Ashwin expressed his displeasure about the umpiring during a Chennai Super Kings vs Rajasthan Royals game, and was fined 25% of his match fee.

Klaasen scored 47 to help Sunrisers reach 182 after opting to bat. But a half-century from Mankad and explosive knocks from Marcus Stoinis and Nicholas Pooran helped Super Giants win the game in the last over.