Ashes cricket: Steve Smith in telling move after Aussies narrowly avoided $88,000 fine for rule breach

Steve Smith and Australia came perilously close to copping an eight-point penalty in the World Test Championship and fines worth about $90,000 for slower over-rates in the second Ashes Test. And in the second innings at the Gabba they made a very telling move that helped them avoid punishment.

The Aussies were eight overs short of the required rate in the first innings in Brisbane. Under ICC rules, teams are docked a point in the World Test Championship for every over they're short of the minimum, after consideration is given to time lost due to batter changes and different conditions.

Teams are required to bowl 15 overs per hour, which should normally equate to about 90 in a day's play. Australia only got through 74 on the first day in Brisbane, mainly because they dropped Nathan Lyon and played an all-out pace attack.

The ICC deemed they were eight overs short of where they should have finished, meaning the Aussie players were staring down the barrel of monetary fines as well. All 11 players are fined five per cent of their match payment for every over lost, meaning the Aussies were looking at losing 40 per cent of their match fee - around $8000 each and $88,000 all up.

But they were saved by the fact England didn't bat the minimum 80 overs to trigger the punishments. The ICC changed the rules in 2023 so that over-rate penalties are voided in the result a batting team's innings doesn't last at least 80 overs. If a team is bowled out twice, they have to have batted a combined 160 overs to trigger the sanctions.

Why Travis Head and Marnus Labuschagne were given a bowl

England only batted 76.2 overs in the first innings, meaning Australia narrowly avoided the $88,000 in fines and eight-point deduction. The Aussies were also behind the required rate in the second dig, drawing a very telling move from captain Smith.

He threw the ball to Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head to bowl an over each, and they sped through their six balls to get the Aussies back on par. In the end England didn't make the 160-over threshold anyway, bowled out in 75.2 overs in the second dig.

England set to cop sanctions after second Ashes Test

But England weren't so lucky to avoid the sanctions. Ben Stokes' side were found to be four overs short in Australia's first batting innings, and because the hosts lasted 117.3 overs they triggered the penalties for England.

The four overs lost means England will cop a four-point penalty in the WTC standings and about $66,000 in fines for all the players. It comes after England were docked a whopping 22 points in the last WTC cycle.

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Earlier this year, Stokes had called on the ICC to give some consideration to the fact teams like Australia, England and South Africa will always use faster bowlers and fall foul of over-rates more frequently than their Asian rivals. Teams like India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan will always use spinners on their home pitches and hardly ever draw over-rate penalties.

"You can’t have the same rules in Asia, where spin is bowling 70 per cent of the overs, to have the same laws in New Zealand, Australia, England, where it’s going to be 70 or 80 per cent of seam bowled, because the spinner’s over takes less time than the seamer’s over," he said in July. "Common sense would think that you should look at changing how the over-rates are timed in different continents."

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