Related Link : Twenty20 World Championship 2007
India’s opening game of the ICC World Twenty20 turned out to be damp squib at Kingsmead in Durban. Rain washed away their Group D match against minnows Scotland. The day and night match was abandoned at 8:35 PM local time in Durban which was after more than two and half hours of waiting from the official starting time.
The Match was to start 15 minutes late only when rain had disappeared to allow a toss to happen with no overs being reduced. Ryan Watson, the Scotland Captain won the toss and asked India to bat first. It started to drizzle when the toss was going on and soon turned out to be a non stop shower leaving the crowd waiting and waiting before the inevitable announcement was made. Both sides share a point each. If the match had got underway, the trio of Virender Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh would have been in action after getting picked in the line-up. Scotland retained the same line-up that played against Pakistan.
Scotland are with a net run rate of -2.52 which means that India has got to get better of that technically to get into the next round in case it happens to lose against Pakistan tomorrow at this same venue. It was for India’s good that Scotland had gone by a big margin of 51 runs yesterday against Pakistan. Tomorrow is the much anticipated clash between the arch rivals which is also a day night affair scheduled at 6:00 PM local time but it largely depends on the weather which has been inclement. Like today, tomorrow’s weather forecast says 60% chances of rain. The good thing however in Twenty20 Cricket is that a match can be curtailed to 5 overs per side as well! Fans all over the world would be hoping that the weather stays intact to squeeze in a couple of hours of play atleast as the last time these teams were to meet which was in Glasgow, it was rain that had played the spoilsport!
India’s line-up against Scotland : Virender Sehwag, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Wicket Keeper and Captain), Dinesh Karthik, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar, Sreesanth and Rudra Pratap Singh