Light showers turned into torrential downpour, hampering play in the first one-day international between India and Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens.
KOLKATA: Rain forced the first one-day international between India and Sri Lanka to be abandoned at the Eden Gardens here after only 18.2 overs were bowled. The umpires, Simon Taufel and Suresh Shastri, conducted a final inspection at 8.30 pm and decided that the ground conditions were not fit enough for the game to resume.
The umpires also felt that keeping the World Cup in mind, it wouldn’t be fair to expose the players of both teams to such dangerous conditions where the risk of injury is high. The 85,000-plus crowd showed their disappointment by throwing water satchets into the ground just after play was formally called off.
Earlier, Indian skipper Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bowl first on a batsmen-friendly track. The overnight rain would have no doubt influenced his decision as would have the thought that his bowlers might be able to exploit the life on the wicket early on.
But all the positive thoughts would no doubt have been dispelled by Sanath Jayasuriya’s early assault. The left-hander took his time to get going but once he was in his stride, the Indian pacemen had no answer to his audacious strokeplay.
Sri Lanka had made 102 for 3 from 18.2 overs when a heavy drizzle forced the players off. Jayasuriya had by then raced away to 63 off just 61 balls, and only a fine controlled spell of bowling from Munaf Patel prevented the visitors from getting more.
“It was nice to see Munaf bowling so well after coming off a long injury lay-off, he hit a good length straightaway and kept the batsmen in check in good batting conditions. It was a batting track and there was nothing much the bowlers could do. We did well to take three wickets,” said Dravid just after the match was called off.
Sreesanth came on in the 11th over for Zaheer Khan (5-0-32-0) and ran into a Jayasuriya, who pounced on anything loose with aplomb. Two boundaries in the first over from Sreesanth was not the start the Kerala speedster would have liked.
But with the dark clouds looming over the horizon, it was beyond doubt that sooner or later rain would play a key role. Though the crowd waited with patience till the final announcement, after rain stopped play at 4 in the afternoon, the players of both teams left before the final inspection.
Cricket Association of Bengal president Prasun Mukherjee said, “The umpires and the players were really sympathetic with the crowd, they were even okay with playing a Twenty20 game, but eventually decided the conditions were too bad.”
As for the players leaving before the official announcement, Mukherjee said: “They are quite experienced and they took the decision seeing the condition of the ground.”
Scoreboard
Sri Lanka
U. Tharanga b Patel 14
S. Jayasuriya not out 63
M. Jayawardene c Dravid b Patel 0
K. Sangakkara c Dhoni b Sreesanth 12
M. Atapattu not out 5
Extras: (lb2, w6) 8
Total (for three wickets in 18.2 overs) 102
Fall of wickets: 1-34 (Tharanga), 2-44 (Jayawardene), 3-96 (Sangakkara)
Bowling: Zaheer 5-0-32-0 (w1), Patel 7-1-25-2, Sreesanth 4.2-0-36-1 (w5), Harbhajan 2-0-7-0
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