Wet ground conditions leave teams high and dry

“Definitely disappointing. It would have given us a platform to try our base combination, try and give a game to everybody in the squad and get some match time,” said Woorkeri Venkat Raman, India’s head coach. “If you are going to be denied those opportunities by the weather gods, nothing much you can do about it.”

Saturday (September 28) was a sunny day. So why not have the flexibility of switching the match days or switching the venues and playing a match where it doesn’t rain?

“It’s a tricky thing. If you try and change venues and then the sun starts beating down, then everybody is gonna have eggs on their faces. We’ll see how it goes and take things as they come,” said Raman, who has played 11 Tests and 27 ODIs for India.

Hilton Moreeng, South Africa’s coach, couldn’t agree more. “If there would have been no rain, it would have been a superb series. It is frustrating to not play for both teams. But you can’t always have it your way in sport like in life,” he said.

When it rained, the centre of the ground and some parts of the surface near the 25.15-yard circle was under covers. However, due to shortage of covers, the rest of the playing field was left open. Although close to 100 groundsmen were summoned to get the venue match-fit, the end result has meant that their efforts had gone waste.

However, Raman was of the view that nobody can help or be blamed for unseasonal rains. “This is an extended monsoon, there’s nothing anybody can do about it. I don’t think we have had rains leading up to the last week of September and early October. Things have been delayed,” he said.

“You can’t really fault anybody in this. Across the country, across states, different formats are getting affected due to rain – day games as well as night games.”

Two out of five games in the series have been washed out. The weather for the remaining matches isn’t promising either. In case of a full series, often the fringe players expect to play at least one game, if not more. But in such a scenario, that chance is reduced.

“As a cricketer you prepare well and wait for the opportunity when it comes. When that chance comes you need to make sure you are ready,” said Moreeng. “Players are aware that you may only have one opportunity to show what you can do.”

“We can't cry over spilt milk. Now we’ll have to see what and how we can tweak our plans based on the number of games left for us,” quipped Raman. “In sport, you have to try and find a way around the hurdles you try and come across. We are faced with those challenges and are left with no other option but to find ways and means to see how things can be worked out.”

The biggest doubt that continues to carry on is whether the flaws that were seen in the first match have been ironed out. With lesser game time and more practice time, things get tough.

Wish it would have been as easy as Sune Luus, South Africa’s captain put it: "I think we need to switch the game days and practise days."