Rain woes continued on Day 3 of Greater Noida Test, which have plagued the much anticipated match between Afghanistan and New Zealand, with the third day’s play also called off without a ball being bowled.
The fact that no cricket has been played over the first two days, despite just one brief spell of rain on Monday, underlines how inadequately prepared the ground was to host this Test.
“Afghanistan versus New Zealand Day 3 is called off due to persistent rains. The match will commence with 98 overs from tomorrow if the skies get clear,” said the Afghanistan Cricket Board in a release.
Officials from the Greater Noida Authority, under which the stadium falls, were also in attendance, supervising the work.
The BCCI has been assisting by providing “additional machinery” to make “conditions ideal” for the match to start.
Extra covers were brought in from the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday evening and almost the entire ground was covered. However, there were puddles of water on the uncovered areas.
With more rain predicted in the next two days, it looks unlikely that the game will go ahead.
“The outlook is quite grim for not just today, but potentially all five days of the Test match,” the broadcasters said.
Only seven matches in history of Test cricket have been abandoned without a ball being bowled.
Afghanistan Cricket Board has hosted 11 white-ball international games here before. The other Indian ground where they have hosted games is Dehradun.
For the record, the BCCI hasn’t hosted any domestic games here since 2019.
None of the BCCI office-bearers were available for comment. A senior BCCI official though claimed that the ACB was made aware of the poor drainage facilities when the venue was allotted the Test.
