RAIN PAIN: India-Canada game called off due to inclement weather

Lauderhill (Florida, USA):Rain continued to play spoilsport at the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium Turf Ground here, resulting in India’s last Group ‘A’ match against Canada to be abandoned on Saturday.

It didn’t matter to Rohit Sharma and his team though. They had already sealed qualification for the next stage of the tournament courtesy three successive victories, against Ireland, Pakistan and USA. Canada had no stakes in the game either. They had no chance of making it to the Super Eight, with just two points from three matches. Even an improbable win over India would have got them to only 4 points, one short of second-placed USA’s 5.

Eventually, the no-result fetched India and Canada a point each, taking their tallies to 7 and 3 respectively.

That put humid Florida in the shade. All three games scheduled here — Sri Lanka vs Nepal; USA vs Ireland and India vs Canada — have been abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Inclement weather here threatens to ruin the last one as well, Ireland vs Pakistan on Sunday, signaling a complete washout of the Florida leg, which concludes the American edition of the tournament.

On Saturday, the weather remained gloomy with dark clouds hanging over the stadium. The square remained covered with the ground staff trying to dry out patches in the outfield with blowers. Umpires Richard Kettleborough and Sharfuddoula carried out frequent inspections of the ground before calling it off at 11.30 am local time. The match needed to start at 12.30 pm to get a full game while a 2.16 pm start would have ensured a 5-overs-a-side affair, the minimum overs required to constitute a match.