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<\/p>\n
Match referee Andy Pycroft found that England were 12 overs short of the target after time allowances were taken into consideration, while captain Joe Root pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the proposed sanction.<\/p>\n
McCullum\u2019s side was also deducted two WTC points for a slow over-rate during last year\u2019s third Test against India at Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Following the latest penalty, England\u2019s percentage on the WTC standings dropped from 34.72 to 26.39, with the nation sitting in seventh position ahead of Pakistan and the West Indies. <\/p>\n
England has never qualified for a World Test Championship final, while the team has not won a Test series against India or Australia since McCullum took charge in 2022.<\/p>\n
During the current World Test Championship cycle, England has only won four of their 12 matches, including a humiliating 4-1 Ashes series loss in Australia.<\/p>\n
England was docked 22 points for slow over-rates during the previous World Test Championship cycle in 2023-2025, with captain Ben Stokes blaming the team\u2019s reliance on fast bowlers compared to Asian nations, where conditions suit spinners.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most frustrating thing is it\u2019s an issue depending on where you are in the world and the style of cricket that\u2019s played,\u201d Stokes said in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is never an over-rate issue in Asia because of how much spin is bowled. I think there needs to be some consideration around how over rates differ when it\u2019s a seam-dominant Test match.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe\u2019re not purposely being slower. It\u2019s hard to find where you can get the time back when you\u2019re out in the middle. As a captain, I like to change things quite a lot. The field could be completely different six balls in an over. But that\u2019s not taken into consideration and getting told to just hurry up isn\u2019t going to fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The third and final Test between England and New Zealand gets underway at Nottingham\u2019s Trent Bridge on Thursday at 8pm AEST.<\/p>\n
Late wickets give England edge on day 1 | 01:01<\/p>\n
WTC STANDINGS<\/p>\n
Correct as of July 22, 2026<\/p>\n
1. Australia \u2014 87.50%<\/p>\n
2. South Africa \u2014 75.00%<\/p>\n
3. Sri Lanka \u2014 66.67%<\/p>\n
4. New Zealand \u2014 66.67%<\/p>\n
5. Bangladesh \u2014 58.33%<\/p>\n
6. India \u2014 48.15%<\/p>\n
7. England \u2014 26.39%<\/p>\n
8. Pakistan \u2014 8.33%<\/p>\n
9. West Indies \u2014 4.17%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England\u2019s chances of qualifying for the World Test Championship final have taken another heavy blow, with Brendon McCullum\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-752501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}