India's forgettable journey with matches played on reserve day, here's a look at 3 instances

India have not achieved good results whenever they played any match on the reserve day after the scheduled day got washed off due to rain. They are now once again in the same situation as the ongoing super-4 match of the Asia Cup 2023 against Pakistan is also set to be played on the reserve day after the scheduled day of Saturday couldn’t get a complete play due to the heavy rain.

With said that, here we’ll have a look at the three defeats for India in the matches that have been played on the reserve day. A few of these matches also included the fixtures from the major international tournaments, including the World Cup and other big championships.

India vs New Zealand (ODI World Cup 2019 semi-final): 9-10 July

The semi-final of the last edition of the ODI World Cup four years back in the year 2019 is still one of the haunting memories for Team India and the Indian cricket fans as well. The match left the Indian cricketing paradigm with a lot of questions about some decisions or India’s fate in the rain-affected clash.

The Kiwis batted first and till the time of rain interruption on the scheduled day, they had scored 211 runs for the loss of 5 wickets. Later on, the next day, they managed to post a target of 240 runs for India. The men in blue got a scary start as they lost 3 wickets just on the score of 5 runs which went to 6 wickets on the score of 92 runs. Then came the struggle and partnership of Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni. But they fell short and India lost by 18 runs to get knocked out of the tournament.

India vs New Zealand (Test Championship 2021 final): 18-23 June

One more time, it was a New Zealand-named obstacle for India in any major international tournament. Both teams took on each other in the title clash of Test Championship’s first edition in 2021 at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Southampton.

Rain played a spoilsport and washed the first day of the match; apart from this, the fourth day of the final was washed off which resulted in using the reserve day, planned to cope with this unfavourable situation. Speaking of the action of the match, India got bowled out on the score of 217 runs in the first innings. Kane Williamson’s men responded with 249 runs, taking a small lead of 32 runs in the first innings. Furthermore, they bundled up India on the score of 170 runs which gave a target of 140 runs to New Zealand.

They comfortably chased down for the loss of only 2 wickets and won by 8 wickets to become the first-ever Test champions in the history of the game.

England vs India (Third ODI, 1996 tour of England): 26-27 May

The men in blue were on the tour of England to play the three-match Test series against the hosts followed by a three-match ODI series. The ODI series openers couldn’t be played as it was abandoned and got washed off due to rain. England took the lead in the series as they won the second ODI by six wickets.

Now, the all-important match for India was remaining at the Old Trafford in Manchester. The match was given a reserve day in case of bad weather or rain. India won the flip of the coin and decided to bat first, scoring 236 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in the first innings.

But they couldn’t utilize a good start in the bowling while defending the target and the hosts crossed the line to win the match by four wickets. The Three Lions also won the series by 2-0.