The American poet Henry Longfellow once said, ‘The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain’. Well, cricket lovers would definitely disagree with Longfellow on this. One thing that lovers of the game hate to see when a good match is on – is the skies opening up. So many cricket matches which promised so much were halted by rain.
Although a dead rubber, the last Test of the series between England and Sri Lanka at Lord’s was evenly poised when Sri Lanka, finally showing some mettle, threatened to chase down a daunting 362 on the last day to salvage pride after being outdone by a clinical England side in the first two matches.
However, the weather gods intervened and thanks to little cricketing action on the last day, the Test meandered to a draw. Here, we look at matches across different formats that were brutally cut short by rain when they promised nail-biting finishes.
#1 South Africa vs England, Sydney, 1992
It looked like a fairy tale for South Africa as long as it lasted. After their readmission into international cricket, the South Africans seemed to be on a mission to rub it in the faces of those who kept their cricketing talent away from the international stage.
And it all seemed to be going fine for them until that excruciating moment when it started raining during the semi-final. With five overs remaining, the Proteas needed 47 to win, The equation changed to 22 from 13 balls when the rain grew heavier.
England, sensing a win, complained of a wet ball being too difficult to handle, while Brian McMillan and Dave Richardson insisted that they’ll play. However, proving that there are no fairytale endings, the match came to a point where South Africa were asked to score 22 runs off 1 ball.
Not many know that the farcical method used to adjust scores in rain-affected matches, was a brainchild of legendary Australian cricketer and commentator Richie Benaud and was done away with away with after the tournament for good.
#2 India vs Australia, Chennai, 2004
After being mauled by the Kangaroos at Bangalore, the India of 2001 showed up in the next Test at Chennai. Anil Kumble led the way with a 7-wicket haul to bundle out Australia for 235 in the first innings. From then onwards, it was a Virender Sehwag show.
Sehwag flayed the Australian bowling that boasted of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and Shane Warne to score a brilliant 155 to give India a lead of 141.
Anil Kumble once again troubled the Aussies but Damien Martyn dug in and scored a gritty 104 to set India a target of 229 runs. When Virender Sehwag came out to play the last few overs of the day, he showed he hadn’t lost his touch and struck some imperious boundaries.
At the close of the 4th day, India needed 210 runs with all wickets intact, but the threat of Shane Warne, who had picked 6 wickets in the first innings, loomed large on the chase. But as it happens so often in Chennai, the skies opened up washing the fifth day’s play of what could have been an enthralling finish to the Test match.
#3 South Africa vs West Indies, Cardiff, 2013
In this Champions Trophy fixture between South Africa and West Indies, the shoe was on the other foot, when a rain curtailed match ended in a dramatic tie that knocked West Indies out of the tournament and sent South Africa to the semis. South Africa scored a competitive 230 in their allotted 31 overs, with Colin Ingram scoring a fine 73. West Indies’ chase looked to be going nowhere when Marlon Samuels started throwing caution to the wind to tilt the match in the favour of the Caribbean side.
However, the skies started to darken and the batsmen knew that Duckworth-Lewis could come into play. At the end of the 26th over of the chase, West Indies looked set to win the contest. Then came Kieron Pollard’s brain freeze moment. West Indies needed to be on 191 for the loss of 6 wickets at that point, but Keiron Pollard threw his bat at a short delivery only to sky it and Dale Steyn completed a comfortable catch when the team total read 190. The downpour ensured no further play was possible. If the rain hadn’t arrived, the match would have surely gone down to the wire with Dwayne Bravo and Darren Sammy on the crease needing 41 runs in 29 balls.
#4 India vs Australia, Melbourne, 1985
Another India-Australia match in the list but this time in a different era and in different conditions. The match that is now looked back as the Test debut of ex-Aussie skipper Steve Waugh saw India come agonizingly close to claiming a victory before almost throwing the match away, thanks to the rain gods as well as some baffling decisions by the team management. The match started on a bright note for the Indians, who after electing to field brought the Aussies down to their knees with the help of spin on the first day. It was a valiant unbeaten century by Greg Matthews that lifted the team from 127-6 to a respectable first innings total.
Indians piled on the misery with the bat when, except Sunil Gavaskar, the top and middle order clicked to help India amass 445 in their first innings. The Australians at one point looked on course to succumb to an innings defeat but skipper Allan Border’s 163 took the team to 308. India had more than 2 sessions to chase down 126 but surprisingly never showed the intent to. Opener Gavaskar crawled to a 54 ball 8 as skies over him darkened. India still needed 67 runs with 9 wickets in hand when rain came down pouring to deny the crowd what could have been a cracking last session of cricket. Both the teams played out another draw in the next Test and the series finished at 0-0.
#5 India vs Sri Lanka, Colombo, 2002
India were in their best form going into the Champions Trophy after their memorable Natwest Trophy win under skipper Sourav Ganguly. On the other hand, Sri Lanka too made it to the finals after defeating World Champions Australia in the semis and were threatening to disturb India's applecart when the two teams met in the final. The first final saw Sri Lanka struggle to an average score of 244 but when India came into bat, it started raining and left the Indian fans waiting.
The Indians must have thanked their stars that there was a reserve day in the final and when they opted to bowl on the next day too, they put themselves in an even better position to lift the Trophy that had eluded them 2 years ago in Nairobi. But once again, for the second time in 2 days, the rain started pouring heavily just when India were starting to look threatening in their chase of 223 and the final was washed out once again. Muttiah Muralitharan was in red hot form in the tournament and it would have made for really interesting cricket to see Indians face the legendary spinner in the chase.
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