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The Unitech Cup finally got alive and kicking at 2:30 PM local time but was shut down once again owing to bad weather after just 22 balls were bowled. Today’s first ODI between Sri Lanka and India was never going to start in time due to heavy showers in the morning and the teams had to be confined to their hotel rooms. However a ground inspection at 1:00 PM suggested that a full 50-overs-a-side match could get underway at 2:30 PM with the match spread out in two days.
India’s Rahul Dravid had won the toss and elected to bat first ignoring the fact that the wicket could have been slightly damp due to the sweating underneath the covers. The Skipper opened the innings with the Comeback Man – Sachin Tendulkar and both were up against Chaminda Vaas and Lasith Malinga. Both the bowlers had the better of the batsmen as they got the ball to move around to keep the two batsmen cautious in their approach. Dravid did get a couple of boundaries with one being an easy picking leg glance off Lasith Malinga and the other being a square cut to spoil what would have been a second maiden over from Chaminda Vaas. The light was the problem soon with the black clouds kidnapping the sun somewhere and play had to be suspended with the two Umpires Billy Bowden and Asoka de Silva offering the light to the batsmen. There was absolutely no way that the Indians could hang on there and face Lasith Malinga’s slinging deliveries at over 140kmph under fading light conditions. The Sri Lankan fielders stood there for sometime but eventually it was a thunderstorm that roared over Colombo forcing people to run for shelter. It would be a miracle if play gets underway at the scheduled 10:00 AM start tomorrow with all the rain that is hitting the ground at the moment. All in all, this has been a disastrous tournament for the Organizers, the Sponsors and others with just 22 balls of international cricket produced in the last five days!
There should be some play possible tomorrow once the rain stops and India would resume its innings at 11/0 in 3.4 overs with Dravid on 9 and Tendulkar on 2. The same teams will again turn up day after tomorrow for the 2nd ODI of this 3-match Series. The Sri Lankan Board is trying its best to make it a five-match series but it looks most certain that the Indians are here for only diplomatic pressures. Had India pulled out like South Africa because of the bomb blast then they would give enough wrong signals for all the teams that would be taking part in the Champions Trophy that is hosted by them in October. Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country was hit by serial bomb blasts recently in a terrorist attack and thus the BCCI wants to show the entire world that the cricket has to go on and not to surrender to the threat posed by any terror. For now, life of the Unitech Cup is at the mercy of the Rain Gods.