The India-New Zealand semi-final contest will conclude on the allotted reserve day after play was abandoned due to heavy rain in Manchester on Tuesday.
New Zealand were 211-5 after 46.1 overs when heavy rain stopped play in the semi-final against India at Old Trafford. The rain eventually abated, yet play was called off due to an extremely wet outfield.
The contest is set to resume on Wednesday. However, if the weather doesn’t improve and the game cannot be completed, India will progress to the final by virtue of the fact that they finished higher on the log during the round-robin phase.
India may fancy their chances of advancing regardless of the weather. They were well on top when the umpires took the players off near the end of the New Zealand innings.
New Zealand, who opted to bat first on a dry and slow wicket, battled to cope with India’s seamers and spinners in the early stages. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor put on 61 runs for the third wicket – over a period of nearly 17 overs – before the skipper was dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal.
Taylor started to show signs of urgency as the death approached. The rain, however, checked New Zealand’s charge.
If the contest does resume, New Zealand will have 3.5 overs to score as many boundaries as possible and boost the overall total. Crucially, they still have five wickets in hand.
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