Rain ruins IPL’s return party

Bengaluru: As forecast predicted, heavy rain lashed the City on Saturday, resulting in the abandonment of the IPL game between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders without a ball being bowled, affecting the play-off fortunes of both sides in different ways.

Royal Challengers needed a win from this game to become the first team this season to punch their knock-out ticket while defending champions Knight Riders had to take the full compliment of two points to keep their slim hopes alive.

With two teams forced to split a point each, RCB soared to the top of the table with 17 points from 12 games and the three-time runners-up now need just one point from their remaining two league games — against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 23 (home) and versus Lucknow Super Giants on May 27 (away) — to seal their play-off spot for a second successive season.

Knight Riders’ title defence, meanwhile, went up in smoke due to the downpour. With 13 points and just a game against Sunrirsers Hyderabad left, they became the fourth team to be eliminated.        

Fans, who flocked the Chinnaswamy Stadium in white jersey to honour Virat Kohli following his announcement of retirement from Test cricket, hoped the rain would stay away so that they can show their love through their voices as well for their superstar.

The broadcaster also hoped and prayed the weather Gods show mercy on them considering the league was resuming a little more than a week later after being suspended following an armed conflict between India and Pakistan. But none of the wishes was granted as rain barely relented, ruining the weekend plans of all.

The rain started around 6.00 pm and in an instant it turned into a deluge. It continued to pour with heavy intensity for almost 90 minutes before turning into a slow drizzle around 8 pm. The umpires walked in for an inspection while ground staff dried the small puddles that had formed around the square.

Heavy rain forced the abandonment of the game between RCB and KKR on Saturday. DH Photo/ B K Janardhan

This brought a smile on the faces thousands of fans who waited anxiously in pouring rain, hoping for at least a curtailed game. But just when it seemed like their hope would come true, it started to rain heavily again and didn’t stop at all.

The DJ tried his best to keep the fans invested with shouts of RCB and playing peppy numbers but rain wasn’t willing to show any mercy. For even 5-over-a-side game, which will constitute of T20 match, to start, the toss had to take place by 10:40 pm but the rain didn’t stop when umpires decided to call it off at 10:23 pm. 

Fans then trudged back in disappointment. This ended up becoming the fourth washout of an IPL game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium and first since the introduction of the SubAir drainage system.