Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson has been fined 30% of his match fee for breaching the IPL code of conduct during his team's match against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
Samson was found guilty of a Level 1 offence under Article 2.8 of the Code of Conduct, which relates to disagreeing with an umpire's decision. He admitted the offence and accepted the match referee's sanction.
Samson, who top-scored for RR with 86 off 46 balls, was out in the 16th over of their chase of 222 when he was caught at long-on by Shai Hope off the bowling of Mukesh Kumar. Hope took the catch close to the edge of the boundary and stumbled briefly before regaining his footing. Unsure whether his foot had touched the boundary cushions or not, the on-field umpires called in television umpire Michael Gough, who ruled that Hope had taken the catch cleanly.
Samson then engaged in a lengthy conversation with on-field umpires KN Ananthapadmanabhan and Ulhas Gandhe before leaving the field.
The dismissal was a key moment in the match, as RR's hopes of overhauling their target rested largely on Samson's shoulders - they needed 60 off 27 balls before he was dismissed.
RR head coach Kumar Sangakkara sympathised with the third umpire for making a difficult call:
"It depends on replays and angles, and sometimes you think the foot's touched. But it is a difficult one for the third umpire to judge. The game was at a crucial stage, so that happens in cricket. We have different perspectives on it. At the end of the day, you have to stand by that decision in terms of what the umpires did. If we have any other kind of opinion on it, we will share it with the umpire and sort it out. But irrespective of that dismissal, we still should have probably seen that game home."