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England all-rounder Ben Stokes was caught using saliva to shine the ball during the second ODI against India at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune on Friday.
On-field umpire Virender Sharma was quick to spot the error and decided to warn Stokes for mistakenly applying saliva on the ball.
The ball had to be sanitised as per protocol and the umpires also informed England stand-in captain Jos Buttler that a similar offence would attract a penalty of five runs for them.
It happened in the fourth over of India’s innings. Reece Topley had just bowled a dot ball when India were 8 for no loss and the ball reached Stokes, who was standing in the slip cordon, who accidentally applied saliva on the ball.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had banned the use of saliva to shine the ball due to the COVID-19 pandemic in June last year.
As per the ICC's Covid-19 regulations, a team can be issued up to two warnings per innings but repeated use of saliva on the ball will result in a 5-run penalty to the batting side.
This is the second time that Stokes has been warned on this tour for applying saliva on the ball. The first instance happened during the Pink Ball Test in Ahmedabad, last month.