 | « Back to article | Print this article |
The first One-Day International between India and Australia, at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium in Kochi on Sunday, was abandoned because of rain.
It's been raining in the port city for the last few days and the two teams did not even visit the stadium for a practice session the last three days.
The umpires inspected the conditions at 0900 IST, but found the areas near the bowlers' run-up and boundary lines quite damp. They decided to carry out a second inspection at 11am, but with further rain lashing the city the match was called off at 1020 IST.
Interestingly, this was the first international match in Kochi after a gap of three years.
A 30,000-strong crowd, wearing Nike blue t-shirts, thronged the stadium and waited patiently for nearly two hours before making their way back because of the inclement weather.
With unrelenting rain over the last three days, the players from the two teams were mostly restricted to their hotels rooms.
India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni had admitted that his team got a deserved rest after playing non-stop in the last few months.
"We couldn't do much after landing here. We had a team meeting, a sort of get together, but we couldn't do anything after that.
"We wished we had practice but the conditions in the ground were inappropriate because of rains. Today also, our morning practice session was cancelled.
"We are still trying whether in the second half we could go if the conditions improve so that we can have some fielding practice. But such a report didn't come. It is better to have some rest rather than go there to the ground and see that nothing is possible. We got some good rest," he had said on Saturday.
Australia's stand-in captain Michael Clarke also seemed desperate to get a match. The visitors are keen to bounce back in the one-dayers after suffering the 2-0 whitewash in the Test series.
"We are really keen to get outside and play the first ODI. I think we will step out and do some running around, catch a few balls, get out of the hotel rooms... I think it's been good for the body to heal with no cricket in the last two three days. But we are very keen to play tomorrow," he had said.
The teams travel to Visakhapatnam for the second one-dayer, on Wednesday, October 20.