Phewf! The waiting game....it had to end at some point, ain't it? At around 9:15 PM, rain eased off and offered hopes of having a shortened affair at least, but, alas, wasn't to be. It was shockingly brief, that ray of hope! Round 2 tomorrow, then! Let's do it all again and hopefully it will be cricket and only cricket we will be talking about. See you all in less than 24 hours. Goodnight peeps!!
22:54 Local Time, 17:24 GMT, 22:54 IST: Ding! Here it goes - the game has been postponed for tomorrow. The ever-hopeful, Aayush, has just confirmed the news. And as mentioned earlier, it's much better (the weather) tomorrow. Umpires and match referee in a conflab. Ashish Nehra and Stephen Fleming shaking hands. "IPL final has been moved to the reserve day at 7:30 PM, 29th May", reads the big screen.
22:42 Local Time, 17:12 GMT, 22:42 IST: Alright folks! We are slowly getting into that territory where we will have some official news. In all likelihood, the game is expected to be postponed for tomorrow. On a positive note, the forecast (if the weather predictions are to be trusted) looks excellent tomorrow.
22:31 Local Time, 17:01 GMT, 22:31 IST: Raining heavily at the moment in Ahmedabad. Simon Doull has a chat with the umpires, Nitin Menon and Rod Tucker. Here is what they had to say: The conditions were quite good (at around 9pm), even after 3 hours of rain, we were quite hopeful but unfortunately, the rain came back again. 12:06 is the latest we can start and the groundsmen have an hour in hand to do the mop up work. We were trying to push the game as deep as possible tonight but if it doesn’t stop till 11, we might have to come back tomorrow. It should be around 60 minutes for the groundsmen to get the ground ready for having a game.
22:21 Local Time, 16:51 GMT, 22:21 IST: The rain has eased off a bit but it is still coming down steadily. There are big puddles of water over the covers, not a good sight! The outfield also has taken a serious beating because of the heavy rains.
22:06 Local Time, 16:36 GMT, 22:06 IST: Well, the live visuals from the stadium don't present a pretty picture! The rain continues to come down hard. The waiting game continues...
21:55 Local Time, 16:25 GMT, 21:55 IST: The excitement and thrill that an IPL finale brings along with it is unmatched! Got to feel for the crowd as well who have come out in huge numbers. Till now, the rain has played spoilsport but let’s keep our fingers crossed! We have started losing overs already. Even a curtailed game will have its own thrills as players and coaches will have to make out of the box decisions! Don’t go anywhere folks! There’s still a lot of time left before the final cut off time (12:06 AM) for the game to begin tonight. Meanwhile, Aayush from the stadium updates, the ground has become a mini pond. Not what we were expecting to hear!
Fayaz: My Favourite moment is obviously the century of SKY in a must win match and coming back in form after some bad patches..
secondly dream COMEBACK of MOHIT SHRMA as a perfect death over bowler!
Magrey Farhan: The best moment of IPL for me is how MSD made his team to qualify for finals despite having inexperienced bowling side. The control over team, decision making, fielding setup, the winning mindset, the coolness of MSD was worth to watch. The quality of leadership is unmatchable.
21:35 Local Time, 16:05 GMT, 21:35 IST: It is still raining and the covers are firmly in place. We all are waiting in anticipation for the weather to clear up. It does look like that 20-over-a-side contest is unlikely now.
21:19 Local Time, 15:49 GMT, 21:19 IST: Oh, no! We all were feeling upbeat but the rain has made a return! It has been that kind of an evening. Meanwhile, provided the rain stops and the match starts, the rescheduled playing conditons are supposed to be: 9:45 PM (19 over game), 10 PM (17 over game), 10:30 PM (15 over game).
21:17 Local Time, 15:47 GMT, 21:17 IST: The umpires make their way out to the middle. Hardik is having a chat with them. A couple of groundsmen are using a roller over the pitch.
Shanmukh: My favorite moment of the IPL is King Kohli getting back to back hundreds. We have seen so many of his hundreds but these are something special after what he went through in around the past 2 years.
PC: LSG's last ball bye after DK's fumble is moment of IPL, otherwise RCB might have been qualified to playoffs.
21:11 Local Time, 15:41 GMT, 21:11 IST: The covers have been completely taken off. Some of the players are having a feel of the pitch. Some of the players are exchanging pleasantries. Mood in both camps seem to be upbeat. So, around 20 minutes are remaining before we start losing overs.