New Delhi: Rain had intervened the first one-day international match between India and Australia, played at M Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai on Sunday and rain will once again play its own game when the two teams head to Kolkata for the second match on September 21.
Opting to bat first, India were left wounded with 87 runs on the board losing five wickets early into their innings. Hardik Pandya and Mahendra Singh Dhoni stitched a gritty 118-run stand to revive Indian's stuttering innings and thus bolstered their total to 281 runs. And then came in rain...not for a few drops to soothen the weather, but an hour and more of heavy shower that in fact reduced Australia's target to 164 runs with 21 overs of gameplay.
Aussies failed to shine with the bat as wickets fell at regular intervals and within minutes the visitors were cut down to nine wickets with 137 runs on the board at the end of 21 overs. Steve Smith-led side thereby recorded a 26-run defeat by DLS method in a rain-truncated encounter at Chepauk.
And now it seems rain wants to play its part in the second ODI game too, as per reports from the Kolkata Met director Ganesh Das. Talking to PTI, Das said, ""By 21 September, the circulation will be gone but in this month rain is a possibility especially in the evening. It may not however continue for too long."
Eden Gardens, which will be hosting an India-Australia ODI encounter for the first time since 2003, will leave no stone unturned to make the encounter memorable. "The pitch and ground conditions is just perfect. It's an ideal condition what's required for an One-Day International contest but I cannot say whether it will rain or not," said CAB pitch curator Sujan Mukherjee.
Curator failed to say whether the game could turn out to be a run-fest like most other India-Australia encounter, but he did assure that the pitch conditions would help either bowlers and batsman.
"Who would thought India to score 281/7 from being five down for 87 in the 22nd over. I cannot say they will make how many runs but the wicket will help both batsmen and bowlers," Mukherjee said.
When asked about the rains, he said, "We are equipped to cover the entire ground and there is enough machinery to clear up even if it rains but it depends on the intensity and duration."
