The first day's play at the World Test Championship final between India and New Zealand in Southampton on Friday was called off owing to continous rain. The match was scheduled to start at 3pm (IST) but the weather ensured that the pitch at the Ageas Bowl was covered and the toss was delayed. Day 2 will begin at 2:30 pm IST. The rain will force the captains to change their strategy and approach during the match right from the toss. There was no rain in Southampton since 5:30 pm IST but the match officials after preliminary inspection, decided to call off the play around 7:20 pm IST.
The good news is that not a single over of play has been lost yet as there is a reserve day (June 23) in place to make up the overs and time. The reserve day or sixth day officially came into effect half an hour into the second session i.e 6:40 pm IST. The two and half hours of play will be made up in the course of the next five days with 30 minutes of an early start on each day.Whatever time is lost from the 2 and a half hours on Friday, will be added to the sixth day on June 23. For example, if two hours of more play was lost from 6:40 pm IST, then the sixth day would have only been of two hours. Now that it was confirmed that no play was possible on Day 1, the sixth day will now be of three and a half hours, provided there is no loss of time and overs in the next four days. "The Reserve Day has been scheduled to ensure five full days of play, and it will only be used if lost playing time cannot be recovered through the normal provisions of making up lost time each day,” ICC had said in a release while announcing the playing conditions for the WTC final.
