NEW DELHI: The IPL 2023 final between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans was on Sunday moved to reserve day due to relentless rain in Ahmedabad.
The announcement was made at 10:55 pm local time.
The final between the two teams - GT and CSK - will now be played on Monday (May 29).
Gujarat Titans will be declared winners if the reserve day is also washed out due to rain on Monday.
The defending champions Gujarat Titans had topped the points table after the 70-match league round, finishing as the only team to have won 10 out of 14 matches and 20 points. Chennai Super Kings had finished second with 17 points.
With the weather forecast not being too promising for the final on Sunday, it only kept getting worse for the fans who had turned up to pack the house.
It began drizzling just about half an hour before the toss time and the ground staff was quick to cover the centre with two separate layers of sheets, along with covering the areas of run-ups for fast bowlers.
But the intensity of downpour picked up heavily, along with thunder and lightning soon, and the fans who had filled up the stands in large numbers were forced to look for cover and retreat into the stands.
Huge puddles of water were also seen adjacent to the centre strip which remained uncovered.
The rain, however, did stop after 9:00 pm local time and the covers were taken off, with two super sopper already in action from around 8:30 pm IST.
However, heavy spell of rain returned to force the ground staff to cover the field again and players off the pitch, who had started warming up.
There were some serious puddles on the covers and exposed parts of the outfield, which would have taken the groundstaff more than a hour to clear, provided the rain had stopped.
As per the rules, the IPL final will have a reserve day — Monday, May 29 in this year's case — in case the match is not able to start by 12:06am cut-off time, in which case there will be a five-overs per-side contest.
There are no such predictions of rain here on Monday, which means that there is full possibility of a 20-20 over match.
(With inputs from PTI)
