Lyon charged for de Villiers run-out incident

Nathan Lyon, Australia's offspinner, has been charged charged with a Level 1 breach of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel by the ICC for dropping the ball on AB de Villiers after the veteran batsman was run out in South Africa's second innings of the Durban Test.

The spinner has been fined 15 percent of his match fee and has had one demerit point added to his name. A total of four such demerit points will result in him missing a Test match.

In the 12th over of the innings bowled by Lyon, David Warner and the offspinner had combined to run de Villiers out as the batsman couldn't get back to the non-striker's end. After dislodging the bails, Lyon dropped the ball which grazed the chest of de Villiers who was down on the ground after attempting a dive to get to the crease.

According to a Cricket Australia spokesperson, Lyon apologised to de Villiers and conveyed to him that there was no malice intended.

Faf du Plessis, the South Africa skipper, was keen to downplay the incident and reckoned what he was was nothing out of the ordinary.

"It's not anything out of the ordinary for me. We certainly don't complain about it. It's big men playing competitive sport. I didn't even see the footage of Lyon dropping the ball until this morning, so it's not like it was anything extra for us. We just play. Obviously Australia were on top for most of the game, and generally when you're on top that sort of stuff happens," du Plessis said.

The first Test, which Australia won by 118 runs, has already been hit by the David Warner-Quinton de Kock controversy with a CCTV footage revealing the Australian opener engaging in a verbal exchange with the South African wicketkeeper-batsman as the players made their way to their dressing rooms.

**Updated after ICC's official release on the event