da spicy bet： The weather, which ruined the opening one-day match of the series onNovember 19, is threatening to derail India’s first-ever Pro20 game onFriday evening
Dileep Premachandran at Johannesburg01-Dec-2006
‘The Pro20 represents the bestchance for India to salvage some pride before packing away the bluepajamas and bringing out the whites’ © Getty Images
The weather, which ruined the opening one-day match of the series onNovember 19, is threatening to derail India’s first-ever Pro20 game onFriday evening. Late on Thursday evening, there was a heavy thunderstorm,and though it didn’t rain on Friday morning, the skies above wereominously grey.Some would have said that they reflected the mood in the India camp afterthree heavy defeats that saw South Africa wrap up the one-day series witha game to play. With Rahul Dravid out until the first Test, and MunafPatel struggling with an ankle injury, the Pro20 represents the bestchance for India to salvage some pride before packing away the bluepajamas and bringing out the whites.Apart from Dravid in the Cape Town game where he broke his finger, SachinTendulkar in Durban, and Irfan Pathan in the last game at Port Elizabeth,no batsman has shown signs of having come to grips with the conditions.And though South Africa are resting several keep players for the Pro20game, the replacements are no slouches. The team practised on Fridaymorning – India were pencilled in for an afternoon session – and GraemeSmith was determined to ensure that India didn’t go into the Test serieswith any shred of confidence.The format probably suits the likes of Virender Sehwag and Mahendra SinghDhoni, and with so much attention having been focussed on the selection ofthe Test side over the past few days, India will probably be glad of thisgame, with all the attendant Bollywood trappings that the organisers havepromised. But with the thunder rolling in, and the skies getting everdarker, another disappointing washout was the most likely outcome.