Stuart Broad criticises ‘lazy decision' to halt Oval Test with England-India series on a knife edge
Ground staff and umpires came together in the middle to discuss conditions after play had been suspended for bad light and heavy rain. And despite the rain easing and brightening skies, play was called off at 6pm, to loud boos from the crowd.
The players will return on Monday to finish off the contest, with England needing 35 runs and India needing four wickets. England currently lead the series 2-1.
'Still 20 mins away from possible start time,' Broad tweeted at 6.25pm. 'Everyone has their sunglasses on at the train station. Felt the supporters deserved to see a finish to that Test Match today. Felt a lazy decision to call it off at 6pm in my opinion. I wonder who makes it?'
However neither side grumbled about the decision, after another hard day's play.
Joe Root, who hit a century to drag England back into the match, told the BBC: 'It is quite a fitting end for how the rest of the series has gone. It has ebbed and flowed all of the way through and this test is exactly the same.
'We are in for a cracker, we are in a good position. We have another heavy roller available. Things might happen quicker with the new ball, it might be easier to score.'
A night's break and an extra use of the heavy roller could play into England's hands but a saturated outfield meant the tourists were not complaining.
'We can see it's pretty wet out there,' said Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel. 'In a way that's out of our control so all we can focus on is doing a good warm-up in the morning, get the boys ready to get the ball in the right area and create a little bit of excitement again.'
Chris Woakes, who has not featured since badly damaging his left shoulder while fielding on Friday, has remained with the team and is willing to bat at No 11 with his arm in a sling if required.
'You probably saw him in his whites in the dressing room. He's all in, like the rest of us,' said Root.
'Clearly, he's in a huge amount of pain. But it means a huge amount to him and it just shows the character and the person that he is, that he's willing to put his body on the line like that for England.
'If it does come to that, hopefully he can get us across the line and win an incredible series.'
additional reporting by PA
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They are now relying on complex analytics to understand player performance, passages of play and opposition tactics. Rugby is adopting football's approach to analytics. Traditionally, rugby, much like football has relied on experts who understood the game. They would use that understanding to analyse how a game panned out. It also helped understand what needed to change for next time. This remains a key component of both sports. But there has been a fundamental shift to relying on actual evidence and raw data. Rugby teams, much like Manchester City under Pep Guardiola, now make use of sophisticated models to anticipate the probability of winning a game. These models may even be cross-referenced with rugby betting odds and real-life outcomes over time, in order to explore the possibility that there may be gaps in existing modelling. AI-powered analytics can also be used to better understand the performance of a team in a rugby game, regardless of the result. 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