Rain washes out Aussie-Pak match

AMSTELVEEN: Rain forced the triangular series match between Australia and Pakistan to be abandoned without a ball being bowled here Wednesday.

It had already rained persistently here Tuesday and further heavy rain Wednesday saw the umpires call off the match an hour-and-a-half before the scheduled 1030am local time (0830GMT) start.

The result effectively ended India’s lingering hopes of qualifying for Saturday’s final which will instead feature world champions Australia and Pakistan.

Beaten by Pakistan by 66 runs in last Saturday’s rain-affected tournament opener India had seen their second match, against Australia on Monday, washed out at the half-way stage.

That meant they had to rely on Pakistan beating Australia by a huge margin to have any chance of qualifying for the tournament’s climax.

After a meeting lasting several hours and including representatives of all three competing teams, organizers decided to stick with the original programmed and confirmed that the final would go ahead as scheduled.

That also means the additional friendly match between the Netherlands and Pakistan is still due to take place on August 30. "For a variety of reasons, the status quo remains. The views of the forecasters regarding the weather are not giving us too much confidence," said tournament media spokesman Hugo Nelissen.

"The head grounds man (at the VRA ground in Amstelveen where all the matches are being played) has serious doubts about getting in any more cricket. "He told me ‘let me try to get the ground ready for Saturday’," Nelisson said.

Nelisson added that spectators who had bought tickets for Wednesday’s match would be allowed entry into the ground for Saturday’s game.

The tournament is a warm-up event for the ICC Champions Trophy competition in England next month.

India, in particular, would have had trouble fitting in extra games here as they are due to start a three-match one-day series against England at Trent Bridge on September 1.