India / Pakistan

When will it rain during the India v Pakistan match?

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2 minute read

We all know it’s going to rain during India v Pakistan – the only question is when.

Which exact brand of annoying will the elements deliver for us?

We live a couple of miles from Old Trafford. We like to think we know a thing or two about how rain affects cricket matches in these parts.

Option 1: Fully rained off

Highly unlikely. At the time of writing, the forecast was overwhelmingly ‘light showers’. Cricket matches don’t get rained off by ‘light showers’. They don’t even get rained off by ‘heavy showers’. You need ‘heavy rain’ or wall-to-wall ‘light rain’ to completely prevent play.

Option 2: Late start, reduced overs

Again, highly unlikely. In classic Big Cricket Match fashion, it’s due to be dry right the way up until they start playing and then dry again immediately after they’re due to have finished. (There’s also a dry hour at about 3pm, which is presumably when they’ll have the innings break.) The dry morning means that we should get underway pretty much on time. They’ll aim for a 50-over game even though they probably won’t get it and then they’ll crop more and more overs off as the day wears on.

Option 3: On and off and on and off and on and off

A strong possibility. We’re expecting more play than would be seen in The Perfect Rainy Day at the Cricket, but the same principles apply. They’ll be off the field when it’s dry and they’ll come back on just before it starts raining again. It is uncanny how they unfailingly manage this on showery days.

Option 4: One innings match

This is the option where one team sets a target but the opposition never gets the opportunity to chase it. This seems unlikely at the minute, but don’t rule it out. The current forecast definitely has the potential to morph into one where it’s as dry as a sunbleached snake skeleton in the morning and wetter than a drowned trout in the afternoon. The one innings is, in many ways, the most frustrating option of all because usually everyone in the entire stadium knows that it’s going to happen, so even the cricket that you do see feels utterly pointless. After a similar experience in Bristol in 2016, we proposed shortening matches in anticipation of rain, which is a thing that will never happen.


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Mike Gatting wasn't receiving the King Cricket email when he dropped that ludicrously easy chance against India in 1993.

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Similar deliveries:

Default ThumbnailShortening cricket matches in anticipation of rain The T20 World Cup final is on Channel 4 on Sunday and possibly also Monday Default ThumbnailAdvantage to Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire in the County Championship It didn’t rain, it was just Cheteshwar Pujara

27 comments

  1. Option 4 is annoying and has happened to me twice at games involving England (see comments on the linked post from 2016).

    I’m not going to this one though (although I live nearby, I felt on balance that selling a kidney to pay for a ticket would be too much hassle and require too much time off work), so I expect it will happen on Tuesday instead when I will be watching Mohammad Nabi flay the England attack (probably).

  2. Three influences in the World Cup

    Heavy rollers
    Short boundaries
    Rain

    Tommorrow’s forecast is fine weather so I’ll go for a full day’s play.

  4. I’m going for Option 3 and/but I’m guessing that they will complete a match, albeit probably a DLS/rain-reduced one.

    Is this the “through the match/through the rain” discussion area? I do hope so. I have one or two almost-pointless items to raise if/when the rain delays occur.

    In the meantime, I thought people might like to read some old match reports on some of the above options.

    Here is the very worst example of Option One – Fully Rained Off – I have ever suffered. there is a bonus link towards the end of the following piece to Nigel “Father Barry White” Hinks’s take on the same non-event which i think is a truly brilliant essay:

    http://ianlouisharris.com/2012/06/08/long-to-rain-over-us-england-v-west-indies-edgbaston-days-one-and-two-7-8-june-2012/

    Enjoy!

    1. Yes, this is the through the rainy match thread. We figure it’s more likely to be ‘on topic’ than something about one of the players.

      1. It’s ever so exciting tracking the rain on the Accuweather app. (other rain tracking apps are available).

        ETA for rain at Old Trafford 13:00.

        In other news, no play in Radlett (Middlesex v Glamorgan) before lunch due to rain.

        In other, other rain-affected news – Daisy v Ged tennis rained off this morning.

  5. I have a rather jolly Option 2 – Late Start, Reduced Overs report in the Ogblog pipeline from an ODI at the Oval 15-20 years ago. Don’t think I’ll get the chance to write that one up today, though, despite the rain.

    Here is something similar to an Option 2, but not pure Option 2. Similar vintage to the as yet unwritten Oval ODI. Daisy’s interrogation of Darren Stevens and resulting inside information is quite a neat story, though:

    http://ianlouisharris.com/2004/08/09/middlesex-v-leicestershire-list-a-match-lords-9-august-2004/

    Enjoy!

  6. Finally, as reported on this very site in an uber-literary stylee – Day One of the Warwickshire v Middlesex Match in 2016 at Edgbaston was an Option 3 – On Off On Off that proved to be, in KC terms, a “Perfect Rainy Day At The Cricket”:

    https://www.kingcricket.co.uk/the-sound-and-the-fury-geds-four-part-report-on-warwickshire-v-middlesex/

    Ivan’s Version and Dumbo’s Version are the most forthcoming with the relevant details.

    I have no written up examples of an Option 4 – One Innings Match – I don’t recall ever attending one of those. My guess is that I have been lucky enough never to have had tickets for such an ODI and for county matches, if the forecast looked that way, I would simply have changed plans rather than put myself (and possibly others) through that most frustrating form of rain-affected cricket-lovers gloom.

  7. ICC should be ashamed of themselves for scheduling a cricket match in Manchester. Don’t they care about the fans? Ps Sachin is God etc

    1. According to a Postbox in the city centre (I mean according to what is written on the specially-decorated Postbox, I haven’t been speaking to inanimate objects again) it’s worse than that, they’ve scheduled more matches in Manchester than anywhere else.

      The Postbox does also mention Sachin though, so it’s OK.

  9. Weather update: more rain expected around 18:00 BST. If so, then for sure it will be a match but might end up DLS depending on how much, if any of that rain causes delay or termination of play.

    In other weather news – Middlesex v Glamorgan got going at 15:00.

    In other, other weather news, Daisy and Ged managed to reschedule their tennis combat to a 14:00 slot this afternoon. Match drawn 5-5. Vicious battle it was – no holds barred.

  10. Disgraceful end to the match, Pakistan didn’t even TRY and hit that last ball for ninety.

  11. This round-robin format really doesn’t work. We already pretty much know who the semi-finalists are, with weeks of group games still to play.

    On the plus side, as matches become meaningless and pressure disappears, perhaps we’ll see scores in the high 400s. You know, like in ordinary ODIs.

    1. ‘Twas ever thus.

      Scrap the nonsense matches next time around.

      Pick the top 4 sides in the ODI table, let them play each other twice, top two go through to finals. Winner wins the World Cup. You’ll get close(r) games between teams that are more or less similar quality.

      Also ensures that the various series between the World Cups aren’t a waste either. You always need to play to win, or you lose rankings and don’t get in.

      1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_1976

        The European Championship finals in football had four teams only, up to Euro 1976. Changed to eight teams in Euro 1980.

        They didn’t do a minileague first though, got straight on with the knockout cup and a third-place playoff.

        The World Cup would be logistically far easier if only one team qualified.

      2. It all just seems geared towards getting Aus, Eng and India in the semi-finals because $$$$. Would love to see Bangladesh put a decent run together.

      3. On current rankings, Oz wouldn’t have qualified for the tournament. Eng, India, SA and NZ are the top 4 in the rankings.

      4. If the Top 4 were the only participants in the World Cup, then India would almost never play Pakistan.

        No India v Pakistan means no ‘1.7 trillion TV viewers’, which means fewer $$$$.

  12. Mohammad Saifuddin has got the chuckeriest action I’ve seen in a long while – all in that snap of the wrist at delivery. That’s basically a throw. Just putting it out there (dons flak jacket).

  13. Shakib!

    Imagine if someone had tipped him years ago to become the best all-rounder in the world.

  14. Did anybody actually have a flutter on Hales being called up..? I know it hasn’t happened *yet*, but… etc

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