In the Super Four stage of the 2023 Asia Cup held in Colombo, India and Pakistan clashed in a highly anticipated match. Babar Azam, Pakistan’s captain, won the toss and opted to field first. This decision set the stage for an electrifying beginning as Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill propelled India to a rapid start.
After Babar Azam won the toss and elected to field, Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave India a blazing start. However, Pakistan soon regrouped by removing both openers in succession, reducing India to 123/2 in just 17.5 overs.
KL Rahul, who had recovered from an injury, and Virat Kohli were in the middle of forming a promising partnership when rain delayed play. Once the rain had stopped, an unexpected sight greeted the fans as the ground workers adopted an innovative approach to dry the outfield. They employed a series of electric fans strategically placed to speed the drying process.
Earlier in the day, Rohit and Shubman had taken on the strong Pakistan pace attack. While Shubman gave Pakistan a few chances, they couldn’t capitalize on them. Their partnership of 121 runs came to an end when Rohit failed to hit one to long-off, captured by Faheem Ashraf off Shadab Khan. Shubman followed suit in the very next over, playing a fullish delivery right into the clutches of Salman Ali Agha at cover.
At the moment when rain halted play, India stood at 147/2 after 24.1 overs. After a significant wait, the umpires concluded that resuming the match on that day wouldn’t be practicable. Consequently, the game was planned to resume on the reserve day, Monday, September 11, with India opening their innings at 147/2, maintaining the match as a 50-over affair.
The rain in Colombo during the India vs Pakistan Asia Cup league match posed a tough situation at the Premadasa Stadium. In response, the ground team took a novel strategy to solve the issue. Despite deploying conventional gear like Super-Soppers, several parts of the outfield remained stubbornly wet even after the rain had ceased. To remedy this, the ground personnel erected a row of fans strategically over the damp places, harnessing their power to hasten the evaporation process and ready the field for play as rapidly as possible.
The Pakistan team now has an opportunity to reconsider their strategy, particularly since KL Rahul unexpectedly appeared in the Indian lineup. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Monday doesn’t look too hopeful, with an 80 percent probability of rain expected. Given that the previous game between these two teams ended as a No Result in Pallekele, fans will be expecting more favorable weather circumstances on the reserve day.
