World Cup 2019 Semi-Final 1: India and New Zealand go into the reserve day as rain plays the spoilsport

In what came as yet another dampener in the ongoing World Cup, India and New Zealand have been forced into the reserve day as rain played the spoilsport during the first semi-final at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

New Zealand were placed at 211/5 in 46.1 overs when the rain gods made an unasked entry in Manchester. The rain continued to play hide and seek for quite long as the officials conducted regular inspections of the outfield in an effort to finish off things on Tuesday. However, with the rain failing to relent within the cut-off time, the officials were left with no choice but to use the reserve day on Wednesday to continue the game.

Taking to Twitter, the official handle of Cricket World Cup tweeted, "With the rain unrelenting, play has been called off for the day. New Zealand will resume their innings tomorrow at 10.30am on 211/5 with 3.5 overs to bat. Here's hoping for better weather tomorrow."

Before the rain interruption, New Zealand were found stuttering to get to a challenging score in their quota of 50 overs. Electing to bat first, the blackcaps were never able to put the Indian bowlers under pressure and as a result, might end up with a below par total on the board. Skipper Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor notched up fifties and stood as the only rangers against a top-quality bowling display by the Indians.

Taylor will assume the crease along with Tom Latham when the play resumes on Wednesday at the same venue. The duo will be looking to get their team past 240 while the likes of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be keen on strangling the run flow in the last few overs.

It may be noted that the league stage fixture between India and New Zealand at Trent Bridge was washed out without a ball being bowled.