GREATER NOIDA: It was swift and early on Wednesday - the abandonment of the third day of the Afghanistan-New Zealand Test at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex here.
There was a downpour for an hour and a half in the evening on Tuesday, and it rained again in the night. At seven in the morning on Wednesday, there was another spell of rain. It was enough to get Day 3 of the Test match abandoned at 9.30 am itself.
Unlike the first two days, where play was called off due to "wet outfield and damp patches in the playing area", this time the two umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Sharfuddoula had the day abandoned on account of "persistent rain".
The situation looks quite grim, as there is very little chance of any kind of play happening in all five days. The toss is yet to take place for the game.
Afghanistan Cricket Board's international cricket manager Menhajuddin Raz sent out a message on the third morning after the abandonment which read "there is no blame game at all from anyone, it's just extremely bad luck."
The BCCI, on its part, provided assistance by supplying "additional machinery" to make "conditions ideal" for the match to start. Extra covers were brought in from the Arun Jaitley Stadium (Feroz Shah Kotla) on Tuesday evening, and almost the entire ground was covered. But, due to the abysmal drainage system of the ground, there were puddles of water near the boundary ropes and that made conditions totally impossible for play.
Both teams and their support staff stayed at the team hotel on Wednesday.
Only seven matches in the history of Test cricket have been abandoned without a ball being bowled. Incidentally, the Black Caps were involved in the last one in 1998 which took place in Dunedin, New Zealand.
