The start of play on the fourth day of the third and final Test yesterday between South Africa and India was delayed after early-morning rain.
Play was due to resume at 10am after it was suspended on Friday, but because of a damp outfield and slight dampness on the pitch, the start was delayed.
The Test was to resume yesterday despite fears over the Wanderers Stadium pitch which was described as “dangerous” and caused an early stoppage on Friday, officials said.
Photo: AP
“The on-field umpires, in consultation with the match referee, and after speaking with both the captains and groundsmen, have decided that the Johannesburg Test will resume on time on Saturday,” said an International Cricket Council (ICC) statement.
Umpires Aleem Dar and Ian Gould, in consultation with match referee Andy Pycroft, took the players off the field earlier than scheduled on the third day after South African opener Dean Elgar was hit on the grille of his helmet by a short ball from India’s Jasprit Bumrah.
The pitch had come under severe scrutiny over the first three days with a series of batsmen taking hits.
There had been several discussions between the umpires earlier in the day because of unusual bounce and deviation on a pitch which former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar described as “dangerous.”
Both captains were called into a meeting with Pycroft and the umpires in accordance with ICC regulations.
Indian manager Sunil Subramanian made it clear that India wanted play to resume with his team in a strong position with South Africa 17 for one after being set to make 241 to win.
“Play on Friday was suspended shortly before scheduled close because the on-field umpires wanted to consult the match referee regarding the condition of the pitch,” the ICC added.
“The on-field umpires will continue to monitor the pitch and consult the match referee should the pitch deteriorate further. The welfare of the players is paramount and two of the most experienced match officials are in charge of the game and will take appropriate decisions,” it said.
Only two Test matches have previously been abandoned because of dangerous conditions.
In January 1998, England were 17 for three against the West Indies at Sabina Park in Jamaica when the umpires stopped play because of a hazardous pitch.
And a match between the same two teams in Antigua in February 2009 was called off after 10 balls because a soft outfield was regarded as dangerous for bowlers and fielders.
Subramanian said he believed that the ball which struck Elgar was “a normal ball” which had bounced from short of a length.
“We held the view that the wicket was doing the same for all three days and today was the day with the least wickets and the strike rate was the highest. We would like play to continue,” he said.
South Africa coach Ottis Gibson, whose team are chasing a 3-0 whitewash, said he accepted the decision to resume the Test.
“We are here to play cricket,” Gibson said. “We still want to play cricket. The match referee’s decision will be based around player safety, they won’t call it off if they don’t think it is safe. If the match referee comes tomorrow and says ‘game on’ then we are going to play.”
“The batsmen will try and do their best to bat us to victory. Throughout the whole game on both sides, you saw batsmen wearing a few on the body. India didn’t complain and we are not complaining either,” Gibson said.
Indian vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane, who top-scored for his team with 48, said conditions were challenging, but not dangerous.
“It was the same for both teams,” he said.
If it was decided to do remedial work to the pitch, “it would be unfair to one of the sides,” Subramanian said.
However, he later added: “Let’s cross that bridge when we come there.”
Former international players in the SuperSport television commentary box were critical of the pitch earlier.
“It’s almost an accident waiting to happen,” former South African captain Kepler Wessels said.
Former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding recalled the infamous 1998 Test between the West Indies and England in Jamaica which was abandoned because of a dangerous pitch.
“That was a total fiasco, this isn’t far off,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier