Bad light forced the first day’s play between Tripura and Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy at the Maharaja Bir Bikram Singh Stadium in Agartala to be called off.
A dense layer of fog enveloping the venue greeted the players on Friday morning. Although it didn’t take much to deduce that the Elite Group ‘C’ game was going to be delayed, a slight spell of drizzle around 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time at 8:45 a.m., only meant that the wait was going to be longer than what was initially expected.
A few groundsmen were, however, optimistic. One of them said, “Tripura exhibits fickle weather. It may feel like there is no hope for a game today, but you never know. The skies may clear up in 30 minutes.”
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The Tamil Nadu boys, unperturbed by the chatter, quietly enjoyed a game of ‘touch and pass’ near the long-off region. The Tripura cricketers, meanwhile, hovered around skipper Wriddhiman Saha and vice-captain Manisankar Murasingh as the conversations ranged from IPL to firecrackers. A while later, loud Punjabi music started blaring from the home dressing room.
The visibility got slightly better at 9 a.m., and with the covers coming off, it seemed like one could have a game after all. Lakshmipathy Balaji and Vijay Shankar even sauntered down to the centre to have a look at the surface. After an hour of warmups post TN’s cap presentation ceremonies, the conditions deteriorated again, and the covers came back on.
Things only worsened thereon, with umpires Nitin Pandit and Rajeev Godara and match referee Satyajit Satbhai finally deciding to call it a day at 3:15 p.m. The captains R. Sai Kishore and Saha, summoned near the sight screen, shook hands to make it official. Although they would both be hoping to enjoy a full day’s action on Saturday, such a scenario looks highly unlikely if the weather forecast is to be believed.
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