Rain dampens spirits of big turnout

With schools only half closed, an expectant crowd at Kanpur's Green Park Stadium had rallied around to make it appear a brilliant occasion on the opening day of the second Test between Bangladesh and hosts India yesterday.

Bad weather, however, played spoilsport for the most part. The anticipation was huge in the morning despite overnight rain making for a delayed start. The crowd would have loved seeing India bat.

"I want to see [Jasprit] Bumrah in action, but I want India to bat first," a student named Mayank, who was perhaps taking advantage of school being closed till 12 pm to allow students to watch the game, told The Daily Star in the morning.

But Rohit Sharma opted to bowl. That was not disappointing at the beginning for the home fans as Bumrah, in particular, made his presence felt.

Openers Zakir Hasan and Shadman Islam did not carry on for long as Bangladesh were in a spot of bother on 29 for two following Akash Deep's double blow. It was skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto who would take confident strides to put some pressure on India.

When rain came in, leading to early Lunch, the Tigers had reasons to be content at 74 for two.

Shanto was looking so good, following a team-high 82 in the preceding innings in Chennai. It was thus disappointing when a Ravichandran Ashwin delivery trapped him in front after a 51-run stand with Mominul Haque. The latter was deliberate in his ploys, often chancing shots when width was given. A confident off-drive saw him take the Tigers past 100.

Mushfiqur Rahim, meanwhile, was settling in as well, but then rain had the last laugh -- this time so unyielding that not only was the rest of the day's play wiped out, but even the customary post-day press conference of the two teams was cancelled simply because the teams could not come into the press box through the waterlogged ground.

People left the arena early, shrugging perhaps at what could have been a brilliant day of cricket had the conditions not intervened.

There was heavy rain in the evening around the stadium again yesterday. Much now depends on how fast the ground recovers for the second day's play today, which is another opportunity for the huge crowd that came in to catch Test action here after a three-year gap.