Date:14/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/14/stories/2007091462192500.htm

Sport

Rain plays spoilsport

Sports Reporter

Durban: Covers coming on and off was the only consistent activity in the middle, as incessant rain delayed India’s opening Twenty20 World Championship Group match against Scotland on Thursday.

Play was scheduled to begin at 6.15 p.m. local time but teams were still warming up in the middle then. The rain gave way for a brief while, but the toss was all that was possible.

Scotland captain Ryan Watson decided to field and just when it looked like the match would begin, the covers were forced to come on again

ICC’s Twenty20 rules state that a minimum of five overs per innings need to be completed, to constitute a Twenty20 match.

No surprises

India’s eleven had no major surprises. Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were picked as openers, with captain M.S. Dhoni, Robin Uthappa, Yuvraj Singh and Dinesh Karthik constituting the next four.

The team went with five bowlers in Irfan Pathan, Ajit Agarkar Sreesanth, Harbhajan Singh and R.P. Singh, relying on the batting abilities of Pathan and Agarkar to boost the lower order.

Scotland had lost its opening group match to Pakistan on Wednesday.

The teams:

India: V. Sehwag, R. Uthappa, G. Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, M.S. Dhoni (captain), D. Karthik, Harbhajan Singh, I. Pathan, R.P. Singh, A. Agarkar and S. Sreesanth.

Scotland: F. Watts, R. Watson (captain), N. Poonia, G. Hamilton, N. McCallum, D. Brown, C. Smith, R.M. Haq, C. Wright, J. Blain and J. Nel.