Hubballi, February 25 Jammu and Kashmir captain Paras Dogra is set to be fined 50 percent of his match fees for intentionally head-butting Karnataka's substitute fielder KV Aneesh during a heated second day of the Ranji Trophy final here on Wednesday.
While the official announcement from BCCI match referee Narayanan Kutty will only come after the game, physical handling of an opposing player obviously leads to sanctions and match bans. In this case, the veteran of domestic cricket is set to receive a mild punishment.
Dogra, who had retired hurt on 9 on the opening day, returned on the second day after the fall of J&K's third wicket, Abdul Samad.
Prasidh Krishna, who had been in excellent form, welcomed the 41-year-old J&K captain with a barrage of short balls and some verbal exchanges from the close-in fielders, including Aneesh, who was stationed at silly-point.
In the 101st over of the innings, Dogra awkwardly deflected a fast rising delivery from Prasidh as he was literally squared up. The ball flew through the vacant third slip region for a boundary.
However, it was seen that Dogra, after drawing the attention of on-field umpires Rohan Pandit and Ulhas Gandhe, rushed towards Aneesh and gently head-butted him, who incidentally was also wearing a helmet while fielding close-in.
An animated Mayank Agarwal ran from his position and got into an argument, after which an unhappy Karnataka captain Devdutt Padikkal was also seen talking to the umpires.
While the content of Aneesh's alleged sledging wasn't known, Dogra sought to downplay the incident by stating that it was something that happened "in the heat of the moment".
Dogra made 70 as Jammu and Kashmir finished the second day at 527 for 6. The J&K captain was dismissed by leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal.
