RCB's playoff hopes jolted, home match against Sunrisers called off due to rain

Photo: BCCI

Bengaluru: The IPL match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore was called off without a ball being bowled as incessant rain made the ground unplayable.

Both the sides got one point each from the abandoned match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Heavy rain lashed the city in the evening but stopped an hour before the start of the match. It seemed for a while that the match would go ahead as scheduled and RCB players have even started warming up on the ground.

But, it began drizzling just before the scheduled toss time and it continued non-stop. Later, rain intensified and forced the abandonment of the match. There was no toss at all.

Puddles of water were seen at several areas of the ground and frenetic efforts of the groundstaff went in vain as rain finally played the spoilsport.

Though the cut-off time for a five-over shootout match was 11.26pm, the umpires called off the match at around 11pm.

With the one point from the abandoned match, RCB jumped to sixth spot with five points from eight matches while SRH remained at third position with nine points from eight games.

SRH had won the first-leg match between the two sides, the tournament's inaugural match, by 35 runs in Hyderabad.

RCB, under India captain Virat Kohli, were looking to come out of the embarrassing batting debacle when they were all out for just 49 in their match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens on Sunday but they will have to wait longer to do so.

SRH, on the other hand, would have wanted to notch up their first away win this season. They have lost all their three matches away from home before Tuesday.