International Cricket Council (ICC) has slapped Pakistan's Shaheen Afridi, Saud Shakeel and Kamran Ghulam with fines and a demerit point each for their belligerent behaviour during the tri-series match against South Africa here.

Shaheen was fined 25 per cent of his match fee for breaching Article 2.12 of the Code, which pertains to "inappropriate physical contact with a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other person (including a spectator) during an International Match." The incident occurred in the 28th over of South Africa’s innings when Shaheen deliberately obstructed batter Matthew Breetzke as he ran a single, resulting in physical contact and a heated exchange between the two players on Wednesday.

The ICC had imposed a similar 20 percent match fees fine and one demerit point on Indian star Virat Kohli for barging into Australia’s Sam Konstas during the Border Gavaskar Trophy series.

Interestingly, while Kohli got a lot of flak for his action, Shaheen has hardly been criticised in Pakistan for his behaviour.

The tall fast bowler admitted after the match that he had been trying to rile up and disturb Breetzke for a while in the match but once it was over everything was forgotten and both shook hands.

In another incident, Shakeel and substitute fielder Ghulam were fined 10 percent of their match fees for celebrating too closely to batter Temba Bavuma following his run-out in the 29th over.

Both players were found guilty of breaching Article 2.5 of the Code, which relates to "using language, actions or gestures which disparage or which could provoke an aggressive reaction from a batter upon his/her dismissal during an International Match." The ICC ruled that Shaheen had intentionally blocked Breetzke’s path when he was taking a single and Saud and Ghulam induced in in the face celebrations when Bavuma was dismissed.

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