India-sa first T20 abandoned
DHARAMSALA: Only a day before Lance Klusener, South Africa’s assistant batting coach, had said that weather and conditions will likely be the ‘biggest challenge’ in India. His statement turned prophetic indeed as heavy rain and a wet outfield forced the first T20 between India and South Africa to be abandoned on Sunday.
For Virat Kohli and Co. the home season opener turned out to be a no-show. The team management will now have to wait till the next match in Mohali on Wednesday to carry on with their experimentations with an eye on the T20 World Cup in Australia next year. The third and final T20 is in Bengaluru on September 22, which will be followed by a three-test series.
Being a weekend match, there was no dearth of excitement surrounding the contest in this hill city. Fans and spectators from nearby Punjab as well as Delhi had come in anticipation of a spectacular contest.
The Met department had predicted spells of shower in the morning as well as in the afternoon. But it did not rain in the first part of the day, raising hopes of a full match. It started to drizzle around 4:00pm and it only increased in intensity further on.
However, it was not enough to dampen the spirits of the fans as the stadium was packed near capacity much before the scheduled start at 7pm. But by then the drizzle had turned into a deluge.
The HPCA Cricket Stadium has one of the better drainage facilities across the country but rain never subsided enough to give the groundsmen a window of opportunity to do damage control. Sun rarely showed up in the past two days, with a couple of spells of rain, meaning the ground was anyways not completely dry.
As rain continued to thrash the stadium, there were puddles on outfield. The toss got delayed and around 7:47pm the giant screen confirmed that the match had been abandoned.
PANT GETS ULTIMATUM
PTI ADDS: India head coach Ravi Shastri has made it clear that Rishabh Pant will be “rapped on the knuckles” if he keeps on playing rash shots like the one he did against West Indies recently.
“We’ll let him be but at times when you see a shot, like the first ball dismissal in Trinidad, if he repeats that, then he will be told. There will be a rap on the knuckles, talent or no talent,” the head coach said in an interview with Star Sports. “Because you are letting the team down, forget letting yourselves down.”
India skipper Virat Kohli said he wants Pant to play as per situations. “The only expectation from Rishabh is that he read situations well. We don’t expect him to play the way you might be thinking. It is about analysing a situation and dealing with it in your own way.”