da apostebet： India’s tour of South Africa got off to the dullest possible start as thefirst one-dayer at the Wanderers in Johannesburg was abandoned without asingle ball being bowled
The Bulletin by Anand Vasu19-Nov-2006
Scorecard
The groundstaff were the only ones who had a busy afternoon as rain washed out the first ODI between South Africa and India © AFP
India’s tour of South Africa got off to the dullest possible start as thefirst one-dayer at the Wanderers in Johannesburg was abandoned without asingle ball being bowled. Torrential rains drenched the stadium all dayand, when they finally abated just before 7pm local time, the groundstaffbegan mopping up operations. As soon as they contemplated removing thecovers, though, the skies opened once more and put an end to the waitingand the uncertainty.India, having lost their warm-up match against South Africa A by 37 runs,were keen to start the one-day series on a bright note, and RahulDravid, the captain, and Greg Chappell, the coach, had said as much.However, sitting around in the dressing-room waiting for the weather to clear only makes India’s task harder.The Indian team is no stranger to this in recent times, with rain havingfollowed them to different parts of the world. A tri-series was washed outin Sri Lanka and rain marred the DLF Cup in Malaysia. The final of theChallenger Series, India’s premier limited-overs domestic competition,was washed out too. This is just the latest instance of wet weather ruining the cricket.With there being no provision for reserve days, this will now be a four-match series and, given that the forecast for the week doesn’t look particularly good, the hope is that we will not witness a repeat when the teams travel to Kingsmead, Durban for the next game on November 22.The opportunity lost will be rued by the South Africans as well. The pitchat the Wanderers has been a belter in recent times andit was here, in March, that South Africa pulled off thatstunning chase of 435 against Australia. Today, though, there waslittle opportunity to see what the pitch looked like, with the coversbarely coming off.Shortly before 7pm the umpires for the match, Billy Doctrove and BrianJerling, took the decision that everyone had feared they would. Therewasn’t enough time to complete 20 overs per team and they had littleoption but to declare the match abandoned.