ICC World Cup 2019: India To Face New Zealand As Rain Continues To Bother

India will take on New Zealand in the match 18 of ICC World Cup 2019 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on June 13. But, with the unpredictable weather of England interrupting matches in World Cup, the fat

India will take on New Zealand in the match 18 of ICC World Cup 2019 at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on June 13. But, with the unpredictable weather of England interrupting matches in World Cup, the fate of India’s next las also doesn’t look very bright. With three matches already washed off, the rain-threat looms large in Nottingham.

Virat Kohli & Co. had to cancel their training session on Tuesday as it showered heavily. They are expected to hold their next session today at 10 AM local time and rain is again expected to interrupt, predict the weather forecasters. Nottingham on Wednesday has already witnessed drizzles and Met Office has predicted a similar kind of day for Thursday also.

Persistent rainfall this week has seen little cricket played. In the game between South Africa and West Indies, the former managed to reach 29/2 in 7.3 overs before rains brought an end to the proceedings. The next game between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Wednesday’s game between Australia and Pakistan would be the first time this week when a venue doesn’t have rain threat as the weather in Taunton shows overcast conditions only.

Richardson also has thrown light on how the unpredictable English weather has struck this time. “This is extremely unseasonal weather. In the last couple of days, we have experienced more than twice the average monthly rainfall for June which is usually the third driest month in the UK. In 2018, there was just 2 mm of rain in June but the last 24 hours alone has seen around 100 mm rainfall in the south-east of England.

“When a match is affected by weather conditions, the venue team works closely with match officials and ground staff to ensure that we have the best possible opportunity to play cricket, even if it is a reduced overs game,” he said on Tuesday.

While it is not rocket science that one cannot fight nature, but just reimbursing fans if games are washed off isn’t what cricket lovers traveling from across the globe to England and Wales for the biggest showpiece event want. They want to see on-field action where cricketers fight it out on the pitch and not groundstaff running Super Soppers to dry them.

(With inputs from IANS)