BRISBANE, Dec 8: Indian skipper Saurav Ganguly was on Monday fined 10 percent of his match fee for his team’s tardy over rate in the drawn first Test against Australia.

South African match referee Mike Procter ruled India finished one over behind and fined Ganguly 10 percent of his gross match fee and each player in his team five percent of their fee.

The Indians were nine overs behind the required rate after Thursday’s opening day but quickened the pace as the home side collapsed from 262 for two to be all out for 323 on day three.

They started Australia’s second innings six overs behind the required rate on Monday but hurried enough for the scoreboard to show they were three overs in arrears by the end of the innings.

Ganguly marshalled his players at the end of every over and utilised slow bowlers Harbhajan Singh (21 overs) and Virender Sehwag (five) for 26 of the 62 overs to pull the tourists’ rate out of dangerous territory.

If a side finishes five overs or more behind the required rate, the match referee has the power to ban the captain for one match.

Such time-wasting is seen as a level two offence under the International Cricket Council’s code of behaviour.

“It’s one area that we’ve talked about and it’s good that we’ve made up three (overs) in the second innings,” Ganguly said.—AFP