Rain hampers practice,may affect warm-up match

With just three more days to go before the Australian team face the President Board XI’s team in a warm-up match,Ricky Ponting and company were certainly looking forward to get back into the groove. However,rain gods had other plans as continuous rainfall forced them to practice indoors. The Australian team were supposed to practice at the Sector 16 stadium on Thursday morning but rainfall meant that they could not go out and train at the ground. This means that the warm-up match starting from September 24 may be affected due to continuous showers.

In the last 24 overs,Chandigarh has recorded 122.8 mm of rain,thus making it one of its wettest monsoon ever. Widespread showers occurred in some parts of Chandigarh and the Tri-city in the evening and the Met Department has predicted more rains over the next two days.

Heavy downpour not only left the outfield wet but also gave extra work to the groundsmen at the Sector 16 stadium. “We are keeping our fingers crossed. Even if we get a bright sunshine a day before the practise game,we can have a good match,” Daljit Singh,PCA curator,said.

“The drainage system at the Sector 16 stadium is very good and that should help,” he added. Meanwhile,the Australian team led by skipper Ponting,did some running and stretching exercises before hitting the gymnasium.