Bengaluru: Moderate to heavy rain stopped further play on Sunday night between hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Daredevils in the last league tie of the IPL-8 at the Chinnaswamy stadium here.
As the 30-minute moderate rain turned into a downpour after 7 p.m. and rain gods did not relent, the two umpires — Kumar Dharmasena of Sri Lanka and Krishnamachari Srinivasan of India — abandoned the match and awarded a point each to both teams.
As the downpour continued relentlessly, the umpires had no option but to call off the match.
With rainwater flooding the ground and preventing resumption of play any more, the frenzied fans who flocked to the stadium in droves for an exciting contest were left disappointed.
When the sky opened up and rain descended, RCB openers Chris Gayle and skipper Virat Kohli ran for cover after playing 1.1 overs and scoring a run each.
Earlier, with dark clouds melting and a drizzle turning into moderate to heavy rain, the umpires stopped play and ordered ground staff to cover the pitch and the open field so that play could be resumed at the earliest.
“Though the match started on time at 4 p.m. and Delhi played its stipulated 20 overs to score 185 for 5 wickets, we were hoping rain gods would spare us rest of the night so that RCB could play 20 overs in chasing the target,” a Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) official told IANS during the interruption.
But just as rain stopped after 30 minutes and ground staff removed covers to resume play at 7 p.m., the rain gods returned with vengeance to pour all over and stop resumption of play further.
With one more point from this abandoned match, RCB gathered 16 points and climbed up to the second spot to play against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the qualifier on May 19 at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai, as it was ahead of Rajasthan Royals with 1.037 net run rate against its 0.062.
RCB, which was the finalist in the tournament’s 2009 and 2011 editions, will also get a second chance to enter the final in the event of losing to CSK by playing against the winner of the eliminator on May 22 at Ranchi.
(IANS)
