Centurion - Freaks of nature have a habit of upsetting the best laid plans which is what happened yesterday when day two of the SuperSport Series game between Northerns and Border was abandoned because conditions were considered too dangerous for play to take place.

A violent storm swept through the venue late Thursday night and uprooted the covering of a large portion of the pitch being used for this Pool A game. Groundsman Hilbert Smit was alerted by ground staff abound 11 pm and arrived soon afterwards to minimise the damage, which Rudi Koertzen, the ICC Test panel umpire, felt rescued the game. "Had it not been for his efforts there is a chance we may have had to call the game off altogether," was the experienced Koertzen's opinion after the decision was made at 1pm yesterday.

Three large commercial blow dryers, later reduced to two, were used to help dry the surface area. What was of concern for both Koertzen and fellow umpire Danny Becker as well as the two captains, Mark Davis and Pieter Strydom, however, was the areas of the bowlers run ups. Koertzen said there had been no improvement to the run ups despite more than five hours of attention from the ground staff to dry the areas concerned and the captains had been reluctant to play if there was the slightest possibility of the risk of injury to a player.

"You cannot blame them and we acted in accordance with the laws and playing conditions (concerning ground and pitch fitness for play)," said Koertzen. He confirmed there had been problems with the bowler's run ups on Thursday during which Border reached 133 for three after 52 overs. What it means now is both sides will have to try and get as many bonus points as possible, which was confirmed by Northerns coach Peter Kirsten yesterday.

"It is a big blow for both sides," he said. "The new format means that we carry over the bonus points earned against the sides which qualify for the Super Eights later in the year. "We did think about looking at new dates for the game, but this is out of the question so we now have to do the best we can. "There are 224 overs of this match remaining and a lot of bonus points to play for," Kirsten added.

Border are worse off than Northerns as their game against Easterns was rained off and as Easterns are unlikely to qualify for the Super Eights the bonus points accrued against them do no count in the pool carry over. Play resumes today at 9.30am Bold dot: Northerns' Standard Bank match against Easterns at Willowmoore Park has been moved from December 27 to December 23.