The ICC has issued a clarification regarding the non-allocation of a reserve day for the second semi-final.©AFP
Will it rain or not? That has been the big question ahead of India’s T20 World Cup semi-final against England at the Providence Stadium in Guyana. The rain has cast a shadow of uncertainty over the much-awaited clash, which will be a repeat of the last T20 World Cup semi-final played in Adelaide, Australia. For both teams, the final destination is the same: a place in the summit clash against South Africa in Barbados.
The Proteas stunned Afghanistan in the first semi-final without any rain interruptions, although there was a reserve day for this match in Trinidad.
Is this also the case for the second semi-final? Not exactly. The ICC has not allocated a reserve day for the India-England semi-final. With Guyana’s capital, Georgtown, having experienced significant rainfall in recent days, it is possible that the same could happen on match day.
If rain spoils the scene, India and England will have contrasting moods. While England will be left to lick their wounds, India will book a direct entry to the final, mainly because of their higher position in the league and the Super 8 stage.
While the ICC’s decision regarding different rules for the first and second semi-finals caused an uproar in the media, the apex body issued a clarification on the same.
An ICC spokesperson suggested that given there is only a day between the second semi-final in Guyana and the final in Barbados, the decision not to have a Reserve day for the India-England match was taken so that the second runner-up would have enough. time to rest and travel.
“For performance reasons, to ensure that teams did not have to ‘play-travel-play’ on consecutive days, the decision was made to allocate additional time for the second semi-final immediately after the match , because the match starts at 10:30 a.m., while the first semi-final begins in the evening, which means that it is not possible to play all extra time on the same day,” ESPNcricinfo quoted the spokesperson as saying. the ICC.
Remember that the semi-final was played in the evening (8:30 p.m. local time, 6:00 a.m. IST), the second semi-final will start at 10:30 a.m. local time (8:00 p.m. IST).
The ICC spokesperson also said that overs would only start being reduced at around 2:40 p.m. (12:10 a.m. IST): 250 minutes after the scheduled start time of 10:30 a.m.
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