India, SA share final spoils

The torrential rains, which lasted for about half an hour, forced the groundsmen to cover the pitch and the adjecent areas but the outfield was left completely soggy.

The two umpires, Alim Dar of Pakistan and Akhtaruddin of Bangladesh, inspected the ground at 6.25 pm local time and decided to abandon the final as the ground had not dried up sufficiently for play to resume. A fresh downpour shortly after the ground inspection, which was much harder than the first spell of rains, undid all the hard work put in by the groundsmen.

The summit showdown, which was originally scheduled for yesterday, had to be postponed to the reserve day today after a thunderstorm had lashed the city just half an hour before the scheduled toss.

The organisers went to the extent of hiring the services of a helicopter belonging to a private company in a bid to dry up the field. The spectators who waited in the galleries hoping for some action had some entertainment as the chopper flew barely a few metres above the turf.

To add to all the non-cricketing drama, the floodlights went off for a few minutes as strong winds swept across the stadium tearing the canapis on the galleries. Electing to bat, the Indian innings began on a sedate note as both the openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir appeared a little tentative against the South African new ball operators on what seemed a dual-paced track.

The dashing Sehwag, who looked unusually subdued, was the first to dismissed with the Indian score on 19 which came as a big blow for the team since he was needed to give a flying start to the innings.

Sehwag tried to lift the ball over the inner circle but failed to connect his shot properly and Allan Dawson latched on to a simple catch at mid-on with Shaun Pollock claiming the prized scalp. Sehwag managed just 8 runs off 18 balls and struck one boundary.

The left-handed Gambhir, who played cautiously, perished to a poor stroke as he needlessly tried to slash at an outside the off stump delivery and only succeeded in edging the ball to Neil McKenzie at second slip with Makhaya Ntini doing the damage. Gambhir laboured for 33 balls for his 11 runs and captain Saurav Ganguly must have been disappointed by the manner in which the Delhi youngster threw away his wicket. (PTI)