Veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik shared an image of bright sunlight streaming down at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton, thus indicating a high possibility of play finally getting underway in the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand.
“Waking up to the sun,” said Karthik in his tweet. The 36-year-old is part of the commentary team for the historic one-off Test match. The first day of the WTC final was washed out. It was the first time in seven Test matches at the Ageas Bowl that no play was possible on the opening day due to rain.
Fans were furious at the International Cricket Council (ICC) for hosting the WTC Final in Southampton despite being aware of the unpredictable English summer forecast but what happened on Friday was an extremely rare occurrence in Southampton.
Better weather has been forecast for the weekend. While it was reported on Saturday that play is set to begin at 2pm IST (0930 GMT) on Saturday, it is now confirmed that it will begin at the original scheduled time of 3pm IST (1030 GMT).
It must be noted that the ICC has kept a reserve day for the WTC Final but it will only be utilised if the lost playing time due to rain or bad light cannot be recovered through the normal provisions for each day. So effectively, only if the time lost is greater than the time that can be made up like in a normal 5-day game, will the reserve day be used.
