After what some may call an upset win for the Rising Pune Supergiant against the Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1 of the 2017 Indian Premier League on Tuesday, the bandwagon shifted to Bengaluru, where on Wednesday night, the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Kolkata Knight Riders are fighting it out in the Eliminator.
The update at 9:45 pm IST
The rule for this game is quite simple: The winner will face the Mumbai Indians in the second qualifier at the same venue on Friday while the loser will play no further part in the competition.
Both teams came into this game on the back of contrasting final matches in the Group stages. The defending champions won their last match in convincing fashion against the Gujarat Lions while the two-time winners lost their match against the Mumbai Indians at home.
However, when the teams came to Bengaluru, not only did they take a look at the strip on offer for the game, they also looked up to the heavens to see the mood of the clouds on match day.
The Chinnaswamy Stadium has over the years seen several matches curtailed by rain, some important, some not quite and the Duckworth-Lewis method comes into play more often than not.
However, in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League, the scenario is slightly different.
If the match between SRH and KKR is abandoned because of rain, the team that finished higher in the Group Stage will progress through to the 2nd Qualifier. The reason for this is that there are no reserve days allotted for the Qualifiers.
If such a scenario does occur on Wednesday, the defending champions will then play the Mumbai Indians in the 2nd qualifier on Friday.
We have in earlier editions seen rain play its part in the Playoffs. In the 2014 edition of the League, the 1st Qualifier between the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Kings XI Punjab was rained out on the day it was scheduled to be held.
However, both teams played the game the following day at 4 P.M, while the eliminator took place as per schedule at 8 P.M between the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings at the Brabourne Stadium.
The weather forecast in Bengaluru for Wednesday was for Thunderstorms at 7 P.M, but cloudy conditions were predicted for the duration of the game between 8 P.M and 11 P.M
All the Knight Riders fans will now be praying that the rain abates.
Rain alert:
Bangalore witnessed its first spell of showers for the day at 3.30pm and fans took to Twitter right away.
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