Quadrangular A-team series shifted from Vijayawada to Bengaluru

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It is raining heavily at Vijayawada, and no play was possible in the last two days - Photo by ESPN

The team of India-A, India-B, Australia-A and South Africa-A was scheduled to participate in a quadrangular series that was to begin on Friday, August 17, 2018, at Krishna and Vijayawada districts of Andhra Pradesh. However, the games listed for 17th and 18th August were washed out totally due to rain, without even a ball being bowled.

And as latest news come from the venue, it is being reported that the series has now been shifted out of Vijayawada due to the same reasons. An official from the Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) confirmed the news on Saturday, soon after the fourth game in a row was washed out completely.

The ACA ground in Mulapadu, Krishna which was to supposed to host half the fixtures apart from Vijayawada, does not have a state-of-the-art drainage facility. The ground management is reeling under the workload of maintaining the ground after rains, and still, they are yet to find any success. This was after the association was confident of preparing the surface and outfield for Sunday in preparation for the next few games, but it all changed drastically after the thunderstorm on Saturday evening. The resultant water seepage caused significant damage to the pitch and outfield, making it unfit for play.

With the weather forecast predicting bigger rains in the coming week, the decision was taken to move the matches out of Vijayawada, with all the points awarded to the teams so far stand to be nullified.

Bengaluru will now host the remainder of the series, whose fixtures are slated for August 23, 25 and 27 when the league matches will be played. This will be followed by the finals, which will be played on August 29, as per a report published by ESPN.

A few key matches, including India-A's fixtures and the final, will be televised and hence those matches will likely be held at M Chinnaswamy Stadium, which has a media center the suits the purpose. The other matches are expected to take place at Karnataka State Cricket Association's Alur facility on the outskirts of the city, the same spot which hosted the recently concluded second four-day Test between India A and South Africa A earlier this month.

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