Why India will play finals if semifinals are washed out- ICC explains

Wherever cricket goes, rain follows. That seems to be the tradition in the T20 World Cup 2024. The rain has arrived in the West Indies and given out a probability of uncertainty on the India vs England semifinal.

India has so far escaped the threat of rain- first against Pakistan, then small drizzles against Australia. Though, the day of the second second semi-final could mark India’s first abandonment, since heavy rainfall is expected in Guyana.

If rain dampens the match this time, there is both good news and bad news for the cricket fans. Good news is that India will get a direct entry into the finals, while the bad news is that England will be left behind without a fair clash as there is no reserve day in case of a washout.

It is a rather controversial call from the ICC, that both the semifinals have been subjected to different rules. The first match between Afghanistan and South Africa had a reserve day but not the second semis. There is only one day gap between the second semifinal and the final, and if reserve day comes into play, the qualifying team will be left with no time to practice.

“For performance reasons, to ensure teams do not have to ‘play-travel-play’ on consecutive days, the decision was taken to allocate the additional time for the second semi final immediately post the game,” ICC spokesperson said.

However, all possible attempts will be made to get an entire 40-over game. A total of 250 minutes of extra time has been reserved for both semifinals to be completed on the same day.

Once the 250-minute time period is done, game will start losing overs. This means that no overs will be lost until 11:30 PM. Depending on the conditions, the overs could be trimmed down to a 15-over or even a 10-over per-side match.

However, a minimum of 10 overs are the least number of overs are required for the game to take place and declare someone as a winner. Anything less will result in the abandonment of the match and in that case, India will go on and face South Africa in the finals as per the Super 8 match point ranking.

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