Second day's play also washed out

1:15pm India v Sri Lanka - Play abandoned for the day
Scorecard

Rahul Dravid and Greg Chappell chat after the second day was abandoned © Getty Images

Play was called off for the second day running at Chennai after an inspection by the umpires at 1pm. Providing that the rain stayed away, they remained optimistic of an early start on Sunday, with 97 overs pencilled in for each of the next three days.

With the rain that deluged Chepauk over the past 24 hours having moved away, the ground staff worked tirelessly to try and get the pitch and surroundings ready for play. They went as far as trying to iron dry a wet patch on the pitch, and there was plenty of sawdust used to try and make the bowlers' run-ups less treacherous. But with vast stretches of the outfield still appearing muddy and slippery, the chances of any play were always slim.

Daryl Harper, one of the on-field umpires, said that certain parts of the ground had dried out considerably but quickly added that there were large areas that needed a lot more working on. He warned that more rain today could further worsen the situation and hoped that they could get things started as early as possible on the third day.