Afghanistan vs New Zealand: Play abandoned for fourth consecutive day, toss yet to take place

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Afghanistan vs New Zealand: Day 4 of the one off Test between Afghanistan and New Zealand was also abandoned at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground. The Test match which was scheduled to begin on Monday, September 9, looks set to get over without a ball being bowled.

If the play is abandoned on Friday (Day 5) as well, it will be only the eighth instance in the history where not even a single delivery was bowled in a Test match.

"The fourth day of the only Test match between Afghanistan and New Zealand teams is also not going to be played due to continued rainfall. The decision about the start of the game tomorrow morning at 8:00 will be made after the stadium assessment," Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) said in their release.

It rained in Greater Noida once again in the night, and morning drizzles peaked around 9:00 AM IST. The water has seeped through the covers and deteriorated the condition of the ground further. For the same reason, officials have been abandoning the day's play even before the scheduled start time since the last two days.

No prospect of play on Day 5 as well

"The scale of rainfall has made it absolutely impossible for cricket today. We are going to come back on day five just in case, but the reality is there will be absolutely no prospect of play. We can't envisage anything else but an abandonment very early tomorrow morning," Andrew Leonard, one of the commentators for the official broadcasters, said.

"What that would mean is that it would be the eighth Test match in the history of the best part of 2500 Test matches now that will be abandoned without a single ball bowled taking all the way back to 1890. We don't want to sugarcoat anything. Tomorrow morning, we will most certainly turn up again and abandon every single aspect of this Test. There has been more than 1200 mm of rain over seven days," he added.

New Zealand landed in India for the historic first-ever Test match against Afghanistan, thinking of getting used to the subcontinent conditions ahead of their two Test matches in Sri Lanka, and three-Test series against India in October-November. However, they have been restricted to the team hotel amid a major chaos which has garnered international attention.