Weather ruins fourth day too

The city witnessed the least amount of rain in three days, yet no play was possible for the third day in a row in the second Test.

A result from this match, which had already lost two full days of play, had appeared a distant possibility even going into Tuesday’s fourth day, and after the umpires decided to call it a day without a ball being bowled, a draw is all but imminent now, unless the teams get adventurous on the final day.

India are 80 without loss in response to South Africa’s 214 all out on the opening day, and it remains to be seen how much of play can be salvaged on Wednesday, which doesn’t look much encouraging as far as weather is concerned.

There appeared a distinct possibility of play when rain took a lengthy break from early on Tuesday morning, though it remained overcast throughout the day. The covers were removed and after the first inspection at 10.00 am, a second one was scheduled at 11.30 am, coinciding with the lunch break. On-field officials, Richard Kettleborough and Ian Gould, were particularly concerned with the damp areas on the bowler’s run-up at the far end.

After the second visit, the umpires decided to have another look at 1.00 pm, following which play was scheduled to start at 2.00 pm and finish at 5.15 pm with an option to extend it by 30 minutes should the light permit. As has been the case during the course of this match, no sooner it was announced that play would commence than it began to drizzle again. The covers were brought on and the play was called off at 2.30 pm.

The Indian players, after confining themselves to their hotel rooms on Monday, hit the ground in the hope of some play. A few of them – M Vijay, Ajinkya Rahane and Wriddhiman Saha – had a stint in the ‘nets’ in the morning while in the afternoon most of the team members enjoyed touch football during the course of which the umpires approached skipper Virat Kohli to convey him their message.

Indian team’s fielding coach R Sridhar said it was difficult to predict what would be their strategy on Wednesday.

“The weather is not something that is in our control so we can’t do much about it,” he noted. “Regarding our plans, we will make them based on how many overs are remaining. According to that, we will take a call on the game plan. As of now, I can’t say much,” he remarked.