Australia's Lyon fined over De Villiers incident

Australia spinner Nathan Lyon was fined 15 percent of his match fee for his reaction following the run out of South Africa batsman AB de Villiers in the first Test at Kingsmead. Australia won the first match of a four-Test series by 118 runs on Monday, but the tourists were criticised for their ebullient celebration of the dramatic run out of De Villiers in the second innings. De Villiers was run out for nought after being involved in a mix-up with opening batsman Aiden Markram, with Lyon, who had knocked off the bails, dropping the ball towards the sprawled batsman as he ran over to join ecstatic celebrations.

JUST IN: The ICC has fined Nathan Lyon and he has been handed a demerit point after this day four incident: https://t.co/Y04zPpm2yM #SAvAUS pic.twitter.com/S1w0xd2AWz

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) March 5, 2018

The International Cricket Council ruled that Lyon's reaction amounted to a breach of level one of its code of conduct as behaviour that was "contrary to the spirit of the game". Lyon, who returned match figures of 3-136, admitted the offence and sanction proposed by match referee Jeff Crowe that also saw the 30-year-old penalised with a demerit point. The bowler was said to have apologised to De Villiers and the pair were seen shaking hands while the teams warmed up on Monday.