Cape Town: Continued rains led to play being abandoned on the third day of the first Test between South Africa and India at the Newlands, Cape Town on Sunday.
Not a ball was bowled throughout the day in the morning and the post-lunch sessions and play was finally called off for the day close to the scheduled start time of the post-tea session.
Thus, the fourth and fifth days will see 98 overs being bowled. Also, play would start at the rescheduled local time at 10:30 am on the fourth day and the last two sessions of the day would be extended by 15 minutes each. The end of the third session will see a further 30 minute extension.
Although the rains did stop for a temporary period of time in the post-lunch session, it came back again to destroy the efforts of the groundsmen and the super sopper. After the lunch session, the Indian players and support staff arrived the ground from where they went to the indoor net facilities.
Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar along with batting coach Sanjay Bangar and bowling coach Bharat Arun were among the ones to be spotted there.
Another highlight of the day was the drunk fans who made their way to the wet outfield and were chased by the security guards.
The match pretty much hangs in the balance courtesy Hardik Pandya, who played a gritty 93-run knock in India’s first innings total of 209 and then returned with the ball to reduce South Africa to 65/2 at the close of play on the second day. However, a major blow for the hosts is the fact that one of their frontline pacers-Dale Steyn has been ruled out of the match as well as the remainder of the series owing to a heel injury.