T20 World Cup 2024 2nd semifinal to omit reserve day, India might face brunt

New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC) and Cricket West Indies (CWI) have jointly tweaked the playing conditions for the second semifinal of the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024, which will see the encounter being played without the reserve day in Guyana on June 27.

The co-host and the cricket's governing body have reached an agreement to allot 250 minutes (4 hours and 10 minutes) extra to decide the second finalist of the T20 showpiece in case of rain, according to a report on the website Cricbuzz.

In total, there will be more than eight hours to complete the match on the same day if it rains on that day.

Without the provision of a reserve day, the teams playing in the second semifinal would wish to please the rain gods as the team finishing higher in the group stage will progress for the summit clash in a washout scenario.

The arrangement has been made to create a one-day buffer between the final and the second knockout match of the tournament. According to the official schedule of the tournament, the first semifinal will be played in Trinidad on June 26 with June 27 marked as reserve day.

Whereas, the second semifinal is slated for June 27 at Providence Stadium in Guyana. With the final of the tournament scheduled to be played at Kensington Oval, Bridgetown, Barbados on June 29, the players participating in the second semifinal will have to play back-to-back encounters in case of a reserve day.

As per new playing conditions for the second semifinal, June 28 will be the travel day for the team making it to the finals in Guyana.

In case of any adversary, India will be one of the teams to face the heat of the revised playing conditions. The 2007 T20 World Cup winners are clubbed with archrivals Pakistan, Canada and co-host USA in Group A. If qualified, India are in line to play in the second semifinal.

"All four teams have exactly the same opportunity to finish a game. For performance reasons, to ensure teams do not have to 'play, travel, play' on consecutive days, the decision was taken to allocate the additional time for the second semifinal immediately post the game because the game is a 10.30 AM start, whilst the first semifinal is an evening start, which means it is not feasible to pay all additional time on the same day. This also ensures that fans in the stadium have the best chance of seeing a result on the day," Cricbuzz quoted a source as saying.