A groundsman at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium brings the covers on as rain started to fall © BCCI
The BCCI has reworked the schedule for the rain-affected Vijay Hazare Trophy 2019-20, while still keeping some room for further allowances for bad weather. ESPNcricinfo had reported that a schedule change was in the works for Group B in Vadodara and the Plate Group in Dehradun, after the Group A games in Bengaluru were rejigged.
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That allowance made in the reschedule for further rain-affected games will prove crucial with matches on Saturday being hit by the weather once again.
ESPNcricinfo understands that a provision was made in the new schedule that if there are more than three matches abandoned before October 8, they will be fitted in as far as possible from October 9 to 17, but in such a way that no team has to play more than two back-to-back games. If no suitable slots can be found for a match(es), it (they) will stay ‘abandoned’.
All three matches in the new schedule, effective from September 28, for Group B in Vadodara were abandoned on Saturday without a ball being bowled, meaning that not a single game has produced a result in the city so far.
There was no play on September 24 and 26 in Vadodara and on September 25 all three matches had to be abandoned midway. Those nine games are part of the new schedule, though with the weather continuing to be bleak in Vadodara, getting all of them completed may yet prove to be a challenge.
Reworking the schedule for games in Group B in Vadodara has proved particularly tricky, with some of the grounds available only after specific days, and it needed more than one iteration to arrive at the final order of play. That exercise meant the reworked schedule for Group B took longer to come out, to the extent that even players seemed unaware till late on Friday who they would be playing the next day. ESPNcricinfo spoke to a number of players from Group B in the second half on Friday, but none of them were aware of the tweaks made.
As for the Plate Group, it is understood that any further games that get abandoned won’t be rescheduled as there are no reserve days in this group.
Saurabh Somani is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo