Vin­ode Mam­chan

An­oth­er day was lost to crick­et at the Queen's Park Oval yes­ter­day and In­dia's chances of re­tain­ing the num­ber one po­si­tion in Test crick­et has all but fad­ed.

Crick­et fans turned up at the Queen's Park Oval yes­ter­day to wit­ness the ground staff dig­ging up the out­field in an ef­fort to ir­ri­gate it, to im­prove drainage. It was too lit­tle too late as the con­trac­tors who should have done this be­fore the Test match had no time to ef­fect it, due to the con­stant use of the Oval.

The re­sult be­ing that the third day of the fourth and fi­nal Sea­grams Test match was washed out, leav­ing In­dia with two days to force a pos­i­tive re­sult, or Pak­istan would over­take them as the num­ber one ranked Test team in the world.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the prob­lem at the Oval has to do with al­gae on the out­field due to poor ir­ri­ga­tion and this led to poor drainage at the Mec­ca of lo­cal crick­et.

Rain has been mak­ing an un­wel­come ap­pear­ance at reg­u­lar times dur­ing this se­ries and start­ed in the sec­ond Test in Ja­maica, with on­ly 16 overs play pos­si­ble on the fourth day. Then the third day of the St Lu­cia Test was washed out and on the open­ing day of this match, on­ly 22 overs were pos­si­ble.

In that time West In­dies lost the wick­ets caught at short leg for nine of the bowl­ing of Is­hant Shar­ma and Dar­ren Bra­vo, bowled by Ravi Ash­win for 10. At the crease and hop­ing to re­sume to­day will be open­er Kraigg Brath­waite on 31 and Mar­lon Samuels four not out.