Soggy field stops cup match
Fitzherbert Park would have been more suited to jet boating than a cricket match at the weekend.
Manawatu’s opening Hawke Cup game of the summer against Wairarapa at Fitzherbert Park at the weekend was abandoned without a ball bowled, mainly due to wet ground conditions.
There was 102ml of rain in Palmerston North from Monday morning to Sunday morning, a month’s worth of rain in less than a week.
Play was abandoned on Saturday by mid afternoon but they had never looked like getting out on the field because it was so wet.
It rained in the afternoon and overnight on Saturday, so they made the call to abandon play early on Sunday morning.
There was no rain on Sunday, but because of all the water around, it would have taken about four hours to prepare the ground to get it ready to play and then there was no guarantee of it being playable. They didn’t even do a toss. Manawatu coach Mike Mason wasn’t too stressed about missing the game completely because it was out of their control.
‘‘It was just too wet all around the block with the amount of rain we’ve had all week and just raining every day,’’ he said. ‘‘The water table was so high, just walking around the edge of the the covers off the wicket, the actual ground is moving under your feet.’’
The pitch was fine because it has been covered, but the outfield had too much water sitting on it.
The bowlers’ runups, particularly at one end, were saturated too.
It wouldn’t have been safe for bowlers or fielders running on the slippery ground and fielders were likely to have taken big divots out when diving around near the block.
There was 65ml of rain on Monday night and the ground staff haven’t been able to mow or prepare the field properly since.
The forecast is for more of the same in the next two weeks too before Manawatu are meant to host Hawke’s Bay, so they will need westerly winds to dry the field out.
Manawatu and Wairarapa will both get three points from the abandoned match.
Manawatu will be disappointed as they will have at least wanted a first-innings win out of the game, which would have given them seven points, or 10 for an outright victory.
It was also disappointing Black Caps fast bowler Adam Milne, who was making his first appearance for Manawatu in two years, wasn’t able to play.