Sport

Rain washes out fourth one-dayer

Colombo: The city woke to a dreary morning, interrupted from time to time by the briefest beams of sunshine, but looking distinctly unpromising.

By afternoon, a steady drizzle had commenced, spraying much of Colombo and further thickening traffic on the roads leading to the Premadasa Stadium.

It was this annoying trickle, the mildest you could imagine, that held the fourth ODI hostage — about as threateningly as a grandmother with a popgun — and eventually washed out Tuesday’s play. The grey-green covers that draped much of the ground were never removed.

We’ll return to the Premadasa on Wednesday — which the administrators have earmarked as the reserve day for game four of this five-match series — to see if matters can be resolved.

India leads the series 2-1, a position of advantage uncommon for touring sides, and will be looking to secure the deal on Wednesday.

Thus making Friday’s fifth ODI the sort of token contest that defeated sides play for pride. But before looking that far, there is the small matter of the weather to contend with.

After behaving impeccably over the last month and a bit — interrupting the SSC and the Galle Tests, but costing neither contest — the weather gods appear to have reserved their worst for last.

The forecast for the next four days suggests that as far as the series is concerned, this may be all she wrote. Now, forecasts are apt to go wrong — and indeed, they frequently do despite the nebulous language that covers for most possibilities. But if they are to be believed, the trophy engraver may as well begin work.

Not only are showers forecast on Wednesday, but Friday and Saturday (the reserve day for the fifth ODI) are expected to be gloomy and wet as well.

Should the forecasts hold, forcing the abandonment of both day-night matches, India will have won its first bilateral one-day series in Sri Lanka.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves — something umpires Billy Doctrove and Gamini Silva were loathe to do on Tuesday.

With a thoroughly optimistic crowd entertaining itself with dance and music in the absence of play, they held off inspecting the puddle-laden covers (and presumably the wet outfield) till 6 p.m. before calling it off.

The Indians, in a smart show of foresight, repaired to their hotel an hour after the scheduled start — ready if necessary to return, but armed with the opportunity to train instead of sipping uninterested cups of tea in a damp dressing room.

With the possibility of shortened matches, influenced by wet conditions, over the next few days, it may not be Dhoni’s last such astute call.

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