Brisbane, Dec 14: Persistent rain had the final say in washing out day one’s play of the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at The Gabba on Saturday. Before rain put a halt on the proceedings, Australia reached 28/0 in 13.2 overs, with Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney unbeaten on 19 and 4 respectively.
“Play has been stopped today due to rain. Play will resume tomorrow and all following days at 09:50 am local time with minimum 98 overs to be bowled,” said the BCCI in an official update. Cricket Australia (CA) said they will initiate a full refund of tickets for Saturday’s play as less than 15 overs were bowled, with fans exiting the venue since the longish rain break began.
CA’s policy says single day ticket holders are entitled to a full refund if less than fifteen (15) overs are completed and no result is recorded for the match on the day. In the run-up to the game, weather forecasts had predicted that rain would play spoilsport on opening day of the match.
It eventually came out to be true, as Brisbane has received 66.2mm of rain since 9am local time on Saturday. Talking about Sunday’s weather forecast, The Bureau of Meteorology said chance of rain is 50%.
“Partly cloudy. Medium chance of showers. Winds south to southeasterly 15 to 20 km/h tending east to southeasterly 15 to 25 km/h in the morning then becoming light in the evening.” It’s forecast for Monday to Wednesday, though, stands at high chance of showers, and is subject to change.
In the morning, with dark clouds looming, India elected to bowl first, with Ravindra Jadeja and Akash Deep coming in for Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana respectively. As dim sunshine came out and section of sparse crowd in fancy dress took its place, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj spent time searching for the right lines and lengths to bowl on a pitch which didn’t offer a great deal of seam movement.
Khawaja took advantage of it when Siraj, who faced boos from the Brisbane crowd, bowled a rank short ball and was easily pulled through mid-wicket for four more. The first rain interruption of the session came in 5.3 overs, and caused players to go off the field for 30 minutes.
Post interruption, India’s bowlers tried shaking up things by bowling fuller, with Siraj and Akash Deep getting some movement. But Khawaja and McSweeney continued to hold fort, with the former easily flicking Bumrah for four and heaving Siraj over square leg, before rain came in to force early lunch and eventually prevail over cricket in seizing the day.
Brief Scores: Australia 28/0 in 13.2 overs (Usman Khawaja 19 not out, Nathan McSweeney 4 not out) against India
IANS