Rain ruins second day at the SCG

A day’s play that was forecast to play a supporting role to the weather was drowned out more quickly and more completely than even the most pessimistic horizon-watchers and sea salts had foreshadowed.

In total, 68 balls were bowled across more than six hours before sogginess and sanity prevailed and the day was abandoned with the West Indies still 7-248 in a first innings that will resume on tomorrow’s third morning.

Although a prediction that shows a 90 per cent chance of rain with up to 20mm falling on Sydney throughout Tuesday might put also paid to that likelihood.

The heavy rain that hit an hour before the scheduled start today had cleared and the SCG surface had somehow drained sufficiently for play to begin following a delay of less than half an hour, but that reprieve was comically short-lived.

Nathan Lyon sent down three deliveries to the West Indies sheet-anchor Denesh Ramdin (30no from 103 balls) – two of which he knocked gently to short-leg and the third that was patted tamely back along the pitch – before the next shower rolled through and the players headed for cover.

They returned an hour and a quarter later, got through another three and half overs of spin from Lyon and Steve O’Keefe from which the West Indies found a further nine runs, and then surrendered to the weather once more. 

WATCH: Burns' blinder at short-leg gives O'Keefe first wicket on home soil

Like a restless sleeper through a steamy night, hours were then filled with the regular rolling back of the covers only to have them re-fitted as conditions oscillated between manageable and maddening.

"It is annoying," O’Keefe said at the end of a day that brought 14,266 spectators to the ground, all of whom are eligible to receive a full refund on their ticket purchase from Cricket Australia.

"It’s hard for the guys to continually switch off and then get back up.

"I think it’s easier if you’re batting, you can come out and start again and it’s only the two guys out there.

"But very rarely do you play games of cricket where conditions are perfect and game plans go exactly to plan.

"There’s still a helluva lot of cricket to go, if you can get three days in it’s close to 300 overs and  we might even get more overs in towards if the wicket keeps spinning, and it’s spinning already.

"I think when the pitch is under covers you do expect that a bit of moisture will be retained in it and there’s going to be a bit of sideways movement in it."

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But it will be weather rather than pitch conditions that dictates the outcome of this Test, as was painfully evident today

The umpires who had scheduled a late lunch then brought the meal break forward, during which the children involved in the daily Milo in2 Cricket activities revelled in the only window of any length during which no rain fell.

There was just one vaguely similar spell before play was formally abandoned at 4.30pm, after hours of relentless rain that never quite became torrential but at the same time refused to stop.

That was the 32-minute session that separated the lunchtime showers from the early afternoon rain into which the day’s cricket highlights were shoe-horned.

Which began when Lyon was able to whiz through the over needed to herald the availability of a second new-ball, which excited some notable interest from long-limbed, big-hitting Bajan allrounder Carlos Brathwaite if not the parochial Sydney crowd.

Brathwaite, in unfamiliar conditions not only due to the wintry aspect but also because he is playing only his second Test match, decided that James Pattinson represented the best chance to steal some quick runs before the next rain dump arrived and went at him with intent bordering on malice.

The day’s only consecutive boundaries – the first from a savage cut shot, the second via an attempted flick over the leg side that instead spiralled over the slips cordon – came from the bat that Brathwaite wielded like a club. 

WATCH: Highlights of Brathwaite's entertaining knock

Perhaps because it’s made by a manufacturer for which he is chief spruiker, and the allrounder who began his cricket life idolising Indian Rahul Dravid’s capacity to bat long periods before evolving into a replica of Kevin Pietersen upon whom he now models his game  thought it an appropriate time to showcase its potential.

Two overs later he went two better, lifting Pattinson over the rope at extra cover with an audacious inside-out drive and then – having ducked his 190cm frame safely under the expected fast bowler’s response to the first strike – flicking him effortlessly over the fence at deep backward square leg.

As if the air was not already sodden enough, Pattinson could be seen exuding steam from his nostrils, maybe even his ears, as he banged in yet another bouncer amid not-so-whispered suggestions that he might be given a spell.

Despite his spell to date extending just two overs.

But Smith, who to his credit persisted with the pace man in just his second Test back in harness after an injury absence that stretched even longer than Sydney’s wet spell, gave Pattinson a shot at instant redemption.

Which he grabbed in spectacular fashion with the fifth ball of his next over, that was fast and full and swung sufficiently away from the towering Brathwaite who was unable to get his preferred brand of bat in the way before the ball thudded into the base of middle and off.

The celebration that Pattinson unleashed upon gaining revenge was closest a forgettable day came to becoming animated. 

WATCH: Pattinson gets revenge after Carlos' clubbing

But with the West Indies’ tail fully exposed at 7-246, and the prospect that Australia’s top-order might be asked to negotiate a tricky period against the new ball in faltering light and on a dry pitch set amid increasingly soft surrounds, the rain visited once more.

And like a Christmas lunch guest with limited self-awareness, it stayed impertinently through tea and then into the evening by which time everyone else had packed up to conclude a dissatisfying day and headed off to bed.

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