Wellington, Dec 4: England captain Ben Stokes has not signed an over rate sheet since the Ashes Test at Lord's last year as he is waiting to have conversations with the ICC over his concerns around the over rate calculations.
Stokes' comments on the over rate came after both England and New Zealand were fined three points each from their World Test Championships tally for maintaining slow over rate during the first Test in Christchurch.
"The most frustrating thing, from both teams' points of view, is that the game finished early, there was a result. But I think the frustration actually stems back to last year in the Ashes where it was the first time I really brought it up to the match referee and the umpires," Stokes was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
"I guess the most frustrating thing is that it's always an issue depending on where you are in the world and the style of cricket that's played. There's never an over-rate issue in Asia because of how much spin is played."
Stokes had sarcastically posted emojis on social media on Tuesday after the ICC imposed the fines.
"There's so many tactical decisions that you need to make, whether that be chatting with the bowler or field changes," Stokes went on.
"As a captain, I like to change things quite a lot and the field could be completely different six balls in an over. But that's not taken into consideration. And getting told to just 'hurry up' isn't going to fix it, because we're out there playing a game."
Stokes has his reason for not signing the over rate sheet since the Ashes Test last year.
"The two conversations I've had with the match referees have actually been very good and the match referees have handled it very, very well and been very understanding from a player's point of view," Stokes said.
"But it's been over a year now since I made some comments around the over rates and still to this day we're yet to hear any response back from anyone at the ICC around that."
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Muscat, Dec 4: Araijeet Singh Hundal slammed four goals as defending champions India defeated arch-rivals Pakistan 5-3 in the summit clash to win a hat-trick of titles in the men's junior Asia Cup here on Wednesday.
This was India's fifth title in the continental tournament, having previously won the crown in 2004, 2008, 2015 and 2023.
The tournament was not held in 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
Araijeet converted three penalty corners in the fourth, 18th and 54th minutes besides finding the net from a field effort in the 47th minute. Dilraj Singh (19th) was the other goal getter for India.
For Pakistan, Sufyan Khan (30th, 39th) converted two penalty corners, while Hannan Shahid scored from field play in the third minute.
Japan defeated Malaysia 2-1 to claim the third spot earlier in the day.
There was hardly anything to differentiate between the two sides as both India and Pakistan fought hard for ball possession in the first quarter.
The highlight of the first quarter was ariel passes employed by both the teams.
But Pakistan had the first laugh, striking as early as the third minute through a field goal from Shahid.
India didn't sit back and secured their first penalty corner seconds later, and Araijeet stepped up to draw level with a powerful drag-flick to the right of Pakistan goalkeeper.
India upped their game in the second quarter and secured their second penalty corner in the 18th minute and Araijeet struck again with another powerful flick.
A minute later, a fine field goal by Dilraj extended India's lead to 3-1.
Pakistan, however, reduced the margin in the 30th minute through a penalty corner conversion by Sufyan.
Pakistan were the better side on display after the change of ends and they drew level in the 39th minute through another penalty corner conversion by Sufyan.
India secured their third penalty corner in the 47th minute, but Araijeet's effort was saved by Pakistan goalkeeper Muhammad Janjua.
Araijeet, however, was not to be denied his hat-trick as he found the net from a field effort seconds later to hand India the lead again.
India pressed hard on the Pakistan citadel in the final 10 minutes and secured a few more penalty corners and Araijeet found the net again from a fine variation to make the scoreline 5-3.