Ahead of the corona virus threat, the ODI match between India and South Africa scheduled to play in Dharamsala on Thursday. But an unexpected guest interrupted the match. The toss was delayed earlier due to wet conditions but soon rain started pouring in and eventually the officials called off the match without a ball being bowled. It was the second match inside six months at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Stadium that was called off due to inclement weather.
India lose couple of series to the New Zealand led by Kane Williamson. India lost the ODI series as well as test match series in a whitewash manner to the New Zealand. On the other hand South Africa whitewashed Australia in the 3 match ODI series.
After the successful victory South Africa registered their first win in seven series across formats since the 2019 World Cup. India set to play without their hit-man Rohit Sharma as he ruled out due to the calf injury occurred during the match against New Zealand. India’s other opener Shikhar Dhawan missed the entire New Zealand series due to the shoulder injury. Dhawan want to perform well in order to make sure he make his case stronger for the T20 World Cup later in the year. In Rohit’s absence, Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill will fight it out to join Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the order.
Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneswar Kumar will both be making a comeback after their long injury lay-offs. Hardik Pandya recently showed his massive performance by smashing 158* runs from just 55 balls in DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai on Friday.
Behind the closed doors
Team India expect to comeback with form through this match but the rain interrupted and abandoned the match without even bowling a ball. According to weather reports, there will be a cloud cover during the second game in Lucknow on Sunday but rain is expected to stay away. These two matches also expect to play behind the closed door as planned for the IPL 2020 and Road Safety World Series.
The 1st ODI between India and South Africa has been abandoned due to rains.#INDvSA pic.twitter.com/Oc5iO6q9dj
— BCCI (@BCCI) March 12, 2020
