World Cup: Here's what will happen if it continues to rain at the India-New Zealand semifinal in Old Trafford

The semi-final clash between India and New Zealand at Old Trafford has been interrupted by rain, which has led to the play being halted, until further examination of the conditions in order to restart the game. Although the ICC has kept aside a reserve day for the semi-final, where the game would resume and not restart, attempts will be made to close the play before it rolls over to the reserve day. 

What happens if play is resumed today?  

If there is any reduction in the overs, then the Duckworth-Lewis method will be applied, followed by which a revised target will be set for India to chase in a revised number of overs as well. New Zealand are currently at 211 for 5 after 46 overs, 11:30 pm local time (4 am IST) is the deadline for the match has to conclude which will require a minimum of 90 minutes to complete the mandatory quota of a minimum of 20 overs. Therefore the match has to restart by 10 PM local time (2:30 AM IST). However, the match Referee can call off the match if he feels there is no chance of play due to wet conditions or no chance of rain to stop.

Overs will start reducing after 4 pm local time (8:30 pm IST). New Zealand will not bat again after 4:15 pm local time (8:45 pm IST). 

Chances of drying the outfield:

 Only two Super Soppers are allocated for drying the outfield by the ICC, proving that governing body has not learnt a lesson from the previous games being washed out during the group stage. 

What about Reserve Day?  

The ICC has set aside July 10 as the reserve day, if the play is not completed on 9 July because of rain or the inability to complete the number of overs. In that case, the game will resume from where it was left off on the previous day, allowing the teams to have a fair contest. However, the game will go into the reserve day only if it is unable to be finished today. 

How can India make it directly to the finals? 

If the game is washed out on both 9 and 10 July, without a ball being bowled, then India would automatically qualify for the finals of the World Cup as their net run-rate is higher than that of New Zealand in addition to India's number one position on the tournament table as opposed to New Zealand's number four on the table. 

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