Cricket

The T20 World Cup semi-finals are set to take place on Wednesday and Thursday, with the first semi-final in Trinidad and the second in Guyana. However, the lack of a reserve day for the second semi-final has raised concerns about the fairness of the tournament.The ICC has allocated a reserve day for the first semi-final but not for the second, which has caused an outcry in the media. The reason for this is that there is only one day's gap between the second semi-final and the final in Barbados, unlike the first semi-final. To give the second finalists enough time to rest between matches, it has been decided to not have a reserve day.However, this decision has been met with criticism, as it means that the second semi-final could be washed out due to rain, while the first semi-final would have the luxury of a reserve day. The ICC has defended its decision, saying that the extra time available for both matches is actually the same: 250 minutes.For the first semi-final, the match will start losing overs if the 8.30pm start-time is delayed for more than an hour. If it still goes into the reserve day, a further 190 minutes have been allocated from 2pm onwards, but the match will continue from where it was left off.For the second semi-final, the overs will start being reduced only at approximately 2.40pm: 250 minutes after the scheduled start time of 10.30am. This gives rise to a scenario in which the match could start as a 20-over affair at 2.40pm, only for the the side batting first to be midway through their overs when the rain returns, thereby causing the match to be washed out as a no-result.If the ICC had made every effort to complete the second semi-final by 2.40pm and only gone into extra time if a 10-over game was not possible until such time, we would have had nearly identical playing conditions for both matches.Another concern is that India knew before the other teams where they would be playing their semi-final. This is because India were scheduled to play their semi-final in Guyana no matter where they finished in their group because that semi-final starts at 10.30am, which is 8pm back in India. Even though South Africa and England knew they had qualified several hours earlier, they had to wait for India's status as winners of Group 1 to be resolved before they could travel to their venues.However, these playing conditions were signed off by every participating board well before the World Cup started.

SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) will face off in Qualifier 2 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday, with a berth in the final at stake. SRH suffered a setback in Qualifier 1, losing to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), while RR emerged victorious over Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Eliminator.To ensure that weather does not disrupt the crucial match, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has implemented contingency plans. Unlike last season, where only the final had a reserve day, all playoff matches, including Qualifier 2, now have a designated reserve day.If rain interrupts the match on the scheduled day, it will resume from the start on the reserve day. To accommodate potential delays, an additional 120 minutes will be added to the cut-off time.However, if rain persists and Qualifier 2 is washed out on both the scheduled and reserve days, the winner will be determined based on the league standings. In this scenario, SRH would advance to the final as they finished second in the league, while RR placed third. Both teams had identical points (17), but SRH held a superior net run rate (+0.414) compared to RR (+0.273).According to Accuweather, the probability of rain in Chennai on Friday is minimal (5%), with a slightly higher chance (10%) on the reserve day. Therefore, it is unlikely that weather will interfere with the Qualifier 2 clash between SRH and RR.