The opening day of the historic one-off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand was a non-starter as play was abandoned due to a wet outfield at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground on Monday.
While the weather was fair all day, and the sun out, the drainage facilities at the ground aren’t equipped to dry the entire playing area, leaving both the sides to wait at least another day to begin their first ever Test encounter. There has been significant rain over the past few days and chief curator Amit Sharma said that the challenge was to keep the outfield fit for play if the wet weather continued.
On Monday, despite no overnight shower, there were wet patches on the outfield and the bowlers’ run-up, leaving the groundsmen busy. The umpires went in for multiple inspections, with the last one scheduled at 4.30pm local time, but the day was abandoned at 4.05 pm.
The toss has been scheduled for 9am tomorrow and the remaining four days will have 98 overs each starting at 9.30am, instead of 10am.
While the match isn’t part of the current World Test Championship cycle, it is expected to help the Kiwis get used to the sub-continent conditions, as they are set to play two Tests in Sri Lanka and three more against India in the next two months.
Afghanistan have played two one-off Tests in this year so far, both in different countries against different opponents, and are looking for their first win since 2021.
Sri Lanka deny England whitewash with 8-wicket win
Sri Lanka registered a rare Test victory in England on Monday as they reached their target of 219 with untroubled ease on the fourth day at The Oval, with Pathum Nissanka’s unbeaten 127 leading them to a consolation win in a 2-1 series defeat.
After their impressive end to Sunday’s final session, Sri Lanka resumed at 94-1, in quest of a further 125 and knocked the runs off in a little over two hours to finish on 219-2 and win by eight wickets. It was their fourth victory in 21 tests in England over 40 years and their first since a 1-0 victory in a two-Test series 10 years ago.
Kusal Mendis had added nine to his overnight 30 before a brilliant running catch by Shoaib Bashir gave Gus Atkinson another wicket, but it proved the only bright note for England on an overcast south London day. Opener Nissanka, who had hammered a quick 53 not out in Sunday’s final session to set up the chase, reached his second Test century off 107 balls.
England’s dreams of a 6-0 clean sweep after crushing West Indies 3-0 and claiming two more convincing victories over Sri Lanka were eventually shattered when Nissanka and Angelo Matthews (32) completed the chase in less than a session on Monday.