Image Credit- Getty
Because of water damage to the ground, the Big Bash
League match between the Melbourne Renegades and Perth Scorchers has been
postponed after 6.5 overs due to safety concerns.
Heavy rain that had seeped beneath the covers
overnight forced the Geelong ground crew to labour assiduously on Sunday to dry
the surface. Upon declaring the pitch “absolutely drenched” at the
toss, Renegades captain Nic Maddinson put the Scorchers in to bat.
The match was abandoned shortly after umpires halted
play to examine the surface, with the scorchers having reached 30 for 2 after
6.5 overs.
The decision came after concerns from batters over
inconsistent bounce, in particular from the Scorchers’ Josh Inglis. At the
time, Aaron Hardie was unbeaten on 20 off 23, while Inglis was not out on 3 off
7.
“That last delivery we saw behave quite
uncharacteristically and in our minds we thought it behaved dangerously so that
was the reason for coming off,” umpire Ben Treloar told Seven.
“When we initially started we saw the pitch, we
had a good look at it, [but] until you start playing on it sometimes these
things don’t present themselves. After the first few overs we were quite
hopeful it was going to be okay but then it started to go south and that last
one was enough for us to consider it dangerous.”
Ashton Turner, Perth Scorchers’ captain, said there
were doubts over the surface before the game began but it was worth trying to
get a game played.
“Start of the day we knew there were some doubts
over the wicket but credit to both teams, we made a fair go of it,” he
said. “We had enough evidence to call the game off and think the umpires
made a really difficult decision, but probably the right decision
“There were definitely question marks over the
nature of the wicket but think we needed to try and make something happen.
Fortunately no one got hurt and the playing conditions say that no one has to
get hurt to call it off which I think is common sense.”