5.25pm In St Lucia, Quinton de Kock has fallen four runs short of a second hundred in successive Tests.
“There is nothing that tells me play will resume,” says Nagraj, who’s at the Rose/Hampshire/Ageas Bowl. “Fourth umpire is hanging by the covers still.”
Verma: “Kane and Kohli can rather play a Test match in EA Cricket 07 to decide the winner. I’m fine with them choosing the ground as Southampton in it. ICC will still ask them to choose the conditions option as ‘Rainy’ though”.
5.15pm Meanwhile, Sneh Rana’s moved past 50 and moved India Women closer to safety in Bristol.
DJ: “In its current state the best team in the wtc cycle gets no advantage over the 2nd best team. Add nuetral venue to that and it becomes a bit of a lottary. These conditions are clearly more suitable to NZ that India. And they have lost toss as well which makes it worst. Ideally the best team of the cycle should get some advantage like hosting the game or getting to chose what they want to do in 1st innings instead of the toss.”
Manav: “Switched watching Germany vs Portugal and Weather is so perfect in Munich – they should have moved WTC final there.” — The future of “neutral” venues.
Sunny: “Who would you give the upper hand to at this point in time?” — India have batted really well to give up only three wickets so far, but they’ve still not gotten enough on the board to say they’re in an advantageous position. Anything could still happen from here, especially with the depth of New Zealand’s attack allowing them to keep coming back at the batters with no loss in quality/intensity.
Neev: “In midst of all the discussions, the thing that goes bit unnoticed is Watling’s Wicket-keeping today. So much swing, many leaves made, and New Zealand haven’t still conceded any byes!”
Sanj from Ottaw: “Being new to the cricket, if they can night games with flood lights, why can’t they play day games with flood lights when the sky is gloomy like today” — They had the floodlights on for most of the day anyway, but even with floodlights, there’s a level of light below which it isn’t easy to sight the red ball.
5.05pm Thanks, Alan, and hello again to everyone else. The New Zealand players are gathered around the edge of the boundary, but no chance of a resumption anytime soon, with the hover-cover going back onto the field. I can see a droplet of what I assume is rain on the camera lens.
Andrew Miller says it isn’t raining just yet, but it’s imminent.
Theoretically, play can go on until 6pm today, with an extra half-hour added on to make up overs. But if we don’t get back on the field by 6, that’s it for the day’s play.
Ganesh Pathare: “This is a very way of playing this game. It’s WTC championship at the stake. Kiwis chose 5 seamers and no spinner because they wanted to exploit the riches of the pitch. So they had upper hand there. India have until now played that 5 seamers part very well on ground while utilising the tactical downside of the one sided attack in bad light. Had there been a spinner or two in NZ attack the game still would have been on.” — I’m not sure any team would pick a spinner just to be able to bowl when the light goes bad. That would mean they don’t have confidence in the spinner in the normal course of events, or they don’t think there’s enough help in the pitch for that spinner.
Trace: “Hey could you guys turn the sun up a bit. I’m pretty sure the controls to that are in your offices. Or in Gough’s other pocket.”
5pm: The umpires are still out there, no sign yet of rain arriving. Meanwhile, over in Bristol, India Women are scrapping towards safety in the Test. To see how much more play we get today, I’ll hand over to Karthik again. Have fun
Here’s Abhishek: “Indian batters application and grit goes to show that even in the era of T20 cricket and non-stop cricket. If given proper time to train and acclimatise, test batters can hold their own against HQ bowling in helpful conditions. They are elite athletes for a reason after all. I hope I don’t jinx it. On that note, as more and more teams are moving to the model of having different batters for tests vs LOI i believe test batting will improve further.” Tests and T20 cricket are practically different sports these days
4.55pm: Gough walks over from square leg with the light meter, to the despair of the crowd. Kohli is already tucking his bat under his arm… Another bad light hold-up, though the NZ players are in no hurry to get off the field. Up by the India dressing room, Kohli is squinting away animatedly, suggesting the light had become a problem. We’ll just have to sit tight once again