KOLKATA – Heavy rains started in Kolkata as Pakistan geared up to face India in World Twenty 20 in the host city on Saturday.
The cloudy weather at first dashed fans’ hopes but revived their spirits slowly as the skies got clearer ahead of the high voltage match. India-Pakistan match needs ‘cool’ weather, jokes Anurag Thakur
The venue had been surrounded by clouds since 6:00am and it started raining heavily around 9:00am, just before the sun made a brief appearance.
To restore passion of the fans further, Eden Gardens staff said the match faced no rain threats, indicating the much anticipated clash will kick off and conclude smoothly.
While the poor drainage problem in the ground has been a problem for the staff with various matches being washed out, a booster shot of sand has been making water go underground and keeping the surface non-slushy.
Further, an all-new machine is at work since last Sunday to keep the ground dry, taking the count of such machines there, to five. On October 8, 2015, the most recent occurrence of a match being washed out at Eden, was when the T20 tie between India and South Africa had to be abandoned when even a ball was not bowled.
India and Pakistan will grind to a halt Saturday as hundreds of millions of cricket fans gather to watch the World Twenty20 match between the two nations in Kolkata’s Eden Gardens stadium.
The cricket-mad neighbours, who have gone to war three times since independence, share one of the world’s fiercest sporting rivalries and their rare showdowns on the pitch can bring both to a standstill.
Tensions have prevented the two sides from playing each other in Tests for more than a decade, and the match is only happening because the T20 is an International Cricket Council (ICC) tournament.
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