Persistent rain had the last laugh in washing out day one's play of the third Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test at The Gabba on Saturday. Before rain put a halt on the proceedings, Australia reached 28/0 in 13.2 overs, with Usman Khawaja and Nathan McSweeney unbeaten on 19 and 4 respectively.
"Play has been cancelled today because of rain. Play will continue tomorrow and subsequently all days at 09:50 am local time with at least 98 overs to be bowled," said the BCCI in an official release.
Cricket Australia (CA) announced that they would begin a full refund process for Saturday's play after less than 15 overs could be bowled, given that spectators left the arena since the rain break started out quite lengthy.
CA's policy says single day ticket holders are entitled to a full refund if less than fifteen (15) overs are completed and no result is recorded for the match on the day. In the run-up to the game, weather forecasts had predicted that rain would play spoilsport on opening day of the match.
It eventually proved true, as Brisbane received 66.2mm of rain since 9am local time on Saturday. Speaking about the Sunday's weather forecast, The Bureau of Meteorology said the chance of rain is 50%.
"Partly cloudy. Medium chance of showers. Winds south to southeasterly 15 to 20 km/h tending east to southeasterly 15 to 25 km/h in the morning then becoming light in the evening." Now, it is actually a high chance of showers from Monday to Wednesday.
In the morning, with dark clouds looming, India elected to bowl first, with Ravindra Jadeja and Akash Deep coming in for Ravichandran Ashwin and Harshit Rana respectively. As dim sunshine came out and section of sparse crowd in fancy dress took its place, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj spent time searching for the right lines and lengths to bowl on a pitch which didn't offer a great deal of seam movement.
Khawaja capitalized on it when Siraj, who was jeered by the Brisbane crowd, bowled a rank short ball and was pulled easily through mid-wicket for four more. The first rain interruption of the session came in 5.3 overs, forcing players to go off the field for 30 minutes.
Post interruption, India's bowlers tried shaking up things by bowling fuller, with Siraj and Akash Deep getting some movement. But Khawaja and McSweeney continued to hold fort, with the former easily flicking Bumrah for four and heaving Siraj over square leg, before rain came in to force early lunch and eventually prevail over cricket in seizing the day.
Brief Scores: Australia 28/0 in 13.2 overs (Usman Khawaja 19 not out, Nathan McSweeney 4 not out) against India.
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