Rain washes out Day-2 play

After a respite on Saturday, rain returned to the City on Sunday to leave a large number of spectators disappointed here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Overcast conditions and persistent showers ensured that the second day’s play of the second Test between India and South Africa was called off without a ball being bowled. The non-action day would have left the Indian team frustrated as they were looking to bat South Africa out of the game.

Replying to visitors’ 214 all out on the first day, India had reached 80 without loss with openers M Vijay (28 batting) and Shikhar Dhawan (45 batting) having had the measure of the South African attack.

Bengaluru woke up to overcast conditions on Sunday and with light drizzle delaying the proceedings, the umpires decided to start the second day’s play at 10:30 am.

Accordingly, the playing hours were tweaked with the lunch break rescheduled for 12:30 pm and close of play at 5:30 pm.

The covers had come off, skipper Virat Kohli had given a pep talk to team members during a team huddle and the South African players had warmed up to have a go at India when it began to drizzle which soon turned into heavy shower. With rain showing no sign of relenting, the day’s play was called off eventually at 2 pm. And as it is often the case, it stopped raining soon after the match officials had called it a day.

A day’s play lost and with potential for further disruption of the game, India will have to make all the running as they seek to build an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-Test series. Team India bowling coach Bharath Arun felt there was still a lot of time left in the match.

“I guess there is a long way to go in this Test match, anything can happen,” he said after play was called off for the day.