Set a daunting 180 runs for victory against the StLucia Zouks in their opening match of the 2015 Hero Caribbean Premier League T20 tournament, T&T Red Steel reached 10 without loss after five balls when the rain came down to wash out the match.
The ground staff worked feverishly on trying to get the game back on but umpires Joel Wilson and Patrick Gustard in collaboration with match referee Hayden Bruce decided that the venue was fit enough for play to resume. Wilson speaking to Guardian Media said: "People have been saying that the venue drains well but it did not, as we all expected. The outfield was too wet for play to start back and although we all wanted to give the fans action, we were left with no choice."
If the game had re-started at 7.55pm when the final inspection came, the target for T&T Red Steel would have been 57 off five overs, so they would have needed a further 47 off 4.1 overs.
Manager of the T&T Red Steel, Colin Borde said his team was always in the game despite chasing a huge score.
"Given the nature of that pitch, I think that we would have gotten the target. The pitch was very good for batting as the Zouks showed and we have the batting strength to chase down scores," he said.
Borde said he was also looking forward toa reduce chase because the fans had come out to support the cricket and his team wanted to please them.
"Even if we had to choose the revised 57 runs off five overs, I think we would have won that easily, given the fact that we would have had all ten wickets in the hut and needing to get just 57 runs.
"We wanted to get back on the park for the sake of the fans but at the end of the day when conditions are not fit you can't have players out there playing and getting injured," he said.
"We have had a run out, we as well as the Zouks would have learnt from the exercise and we know what we have to tweak moving forward. Red Steel left St. Lucia at 10am yesterday (Monday) for Barbados where they will meet the red hot Barbados Tridents in their second match of the tournament on Thursday night. The Tridents, the defending champions turned away 2014 runners-up Guyana Amazon Warriors by 49 runs in their first game on Saturday night at Kensington Oval in Barbados.
The Red Steel will take the day off on Mondaybefore hitting the nets tomorrowand Wednesday, ahead of their 6pm clash on Thursday.