Kanpur (Twitter)
After the Day 1 of the Kanpur Test play was prematurely stopped due to bad light first and then called off in its entirety due to a sudden charge of rainfall on Day 1 of the second Test between India and Bangladesh, the start of the second day didn’t look one bit promising either.
A slight drizzle was instigated an hour before the scheduled start of play. According to the playing conditions of the International Cricket Council (ICC), play is allowed to start half an hour in advance of the scheduled start so as to compensate for the overs lost the preceding day. However, none of that was possible.
For a little over an hour in the morning, there were no traces of rainfall but the ground remained covered nonetheless. However, there still was an ample amount of water spread across the covers. Three super soppers were put to use but to no avail. By the time the first session was lost, the light had improved a tad bit. The reserve umpire of the game, Virender Sharma, had stepped onto the outfield to have a word with the groundsmen.
There were instances of the on-field umpires being in conversation with the ground staff. However, none of the chats were observed to last for an adequate duration, as all the umpires would do was head over to the dressing room post a few minutes of chatter. That basically was a fair indicator of what was to follow as the day was finally called off at 2 pm.
Notably, the previous occurrence of an entire day’s play getting called off was nine years ago in Bengaluru, when South Africa had toured India for a multi-format series. Coincidentally, it was India who had opted to bowl first in that game as well. In that game, after Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan batted well, Ashwin and jadeja claimed eight wickets between them. But due to incessant rains, not only did the second day get washed out completely, but the entire Test was abandoned after the first day’s play due to a wet outfield.
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Fans keep fingers crossed for Day three action
The predicted forecast doesn’t look completely spotless for Sunday but is expected to play out a lot better than it did compared to the second day. The passionate fans who had lined up outside the stadium while surrounding the team buses on Day 2.
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Besides the fans all across the two countries will hope for more on-field action and fewer weather updates during the succeeding day. There is expected to be a bit of rain around. However, the sun is estimated to be out as well.