Rain washes out first day in Bengaluru

ReportNow that this will start as a Test of four days or fewer, a team wanting to enforce a follow-on will need to lead by 150 and not 200

New Zealand have now gone six consecutive days of Test cricket in India without any actual cricket. After the Afghanistan misadventure in Greater Noida, you could hardly blame the ground for this one, though. The first day of the first Test in Bengaluru remained a non-starter as the rainy week continued.

Bengaluru did wake up to optimistic news as the expected apocalyptic rain had skirted the city. However, a drizzle of varying intensity – sometimes so fine that it wouldn’t result in an interruption if pay was already on – continued until a big shower at 2.30pm put paid to all hopes of a toss on day one. Now that this will start as a Test of four days or fewer, a team wanting to enforce a follow-on will need to lead by 150 and not 200.

After the amount of rain the M Chinnaswamy Stadium has taken in the lead-up to the Test, the only reason for hope was the sub-air drainage system at the ground that can drain a claimed 10000 litres of water per minute. However, there was another obstacle in the course: because of the rain a day before the match, the Hawk-Eye formatting couldn’t be done. This process, too, takes an hour and a half. However, it didn’t come down to that as the rain at 2.30pm was heavy. The authorities will hope this formatting can be done before the second day, which by the way is forecast to be impacted by rain again.

Play will start 15 minutes early on the remaining four days and end 15 minutes late so that 98 overs can be bowled every day. An extra half an hour can be added to make up for slow over-rates.

Sidharth Monga is a senior writer at ESPNcricinfo

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