Chennai, Oct 21: The opening day of the Airtel Duleep Trophy Final between East Zone and Central Zone, scheduled being played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, had to be abandoned because of incessant showers.

Chennai has been experiencing showers over the last three days with the setting in of the Northeast monsoon. It had been raining all day on Saturday and the showers continued into early Sunday morning. After a brief let-off, the showers resumed yet again this morning and confined the players and match officials indoors. After the rains did not show any signs of letting up, and with the ground filled with puddles, the umpires - Vineet Kulkarni and C Shamshuddin - had no other option but to abandon the day’s play.

Defending champions East Zone qualified for the Final after they took a crucial first innings lead in the drawn semi-final against South Zone. Central Zone on the other hand came back from behind to oust North Zone in the other second semi-final at Hyderabad.