Skip to main content

Dew factor to make World Cup interesting: India coach Dravid

Excessive moisture on the field at the Cricket World Cup will make the top-flight ODI competition all the more interesting, India coach Rahul Dravid said.

The 50-over tournament kicks off next Thursday across 10 cities, and all but six of the 48 matches will be day-night contests.

In India that usually means high moisture on the field after sunset, which makes the ball moist and difficult to grip.

“India is a big country and there are many venues so it’s hard to say it (dew) is going to be the same everywhere,” Dravid said after India’s 66-run loss to Australia in their third and final ODI in Rajkot on Wednesday.

“Each venue and each day will be different. It’s one of the hardest things to predict with dew,” he said.

Dew mainly affects bowlers and fielders as day-night matches progress, with most captains opting to bowl first after winning the toss as a result.

But whether it will be a factor at all is in itself unpredictable.

Dravid, a former India captain, said he had played games on fields where the ground would be “soaked” the day before but bone-dry by match time.

“As the tournament goes on, at some venues it will be a factor and at some it may not. It’s going to make it more interesting,” the 50-year-old said.

India, the top-ranked team across all formats, begin their World Cup campaign against Australia on October 8 followed by their hotly anticipated clash against Pakistan.

They will also play two warm-up matches beginning with England in Guwahati on September 30.



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/FDqtWpC
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ailing Pope Francis to embark on Asia trip, his longest ever, in September

Pope Francis will travel to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Singapore from September 2-13, the Vatican said on Friday, announcing his first overseas trip of the year and the longest of his 11-year papacy. The Asia trip has been on the papal agenda for some time, but there had been doubts on whether the 87-year-old pontiff would embark on it given his increasing frailty, with a record of skipping engagements due to health problems. His last international journey was a two-day stay in Marseille, France in September. In November, he pulled out of a trip to the COP28 climate conference in Dubai because of a lung inflammation . Francis is now scheduled to be in Jakarta between Sept 3-6, Port Moresby and Vanimo between Sept 6-9, Dili September. 9-11 and Singapore Sept 11-13, his spokesman said in a statement. Vietnam, which had been suggested by the pope and Vatican officials as a possible further destination during the nearly two-week long Asia trip, was not mentioned. In ...
Post a Comment
Read more

‘A war out there’: Maple Leafs survive shootout thriller in Utah

SALT LAKE CITY — Whew. They needed this one, even if they didn’t wholly deserve it. For a Monday night in Salt Lake City, the stakes felt unusually high for the sagging, road-weary Toronto Maple Leafs .  Heading into their inaugural game at Delta Center, the Leafs had dropped three straight, blown a couple leads, slipped out of first place, and  distracted  the fan base by propositioning their best player with a trade.  Worse: Their process hasn’t been tight for a couple weeks. Mistakes have crept in. Speed is giving their defence issues. And their razor-sharp goaltenders have begun to look human. Head coach Craig Berube held an intense team meeting Sunday, following Saturday’s 7-4 outclassing in Denver. Multiple players spoke up. Captain Auston Matthews said they’d reached look-in-the-mirror time. “The really bad games have a good way of being the biggest learning experiences,” thoughtful goaltender Joseph Woll said, following Monday’s slump-snuffing, nail-b...
Post a Comment
Read more

PM Shehbaz departs for 2-day visit to Azerbaijan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif departed on Friday for a two-day official visit to Azerbaijan at the invitation of President Ilham Aliyev. In a post on social media platform X, state-run PTV said that Information Minister Attaullah Tarar was also accompanying the premier. Earlier today, the Foreign Office (FO) said PM Shehbaz would undertake the visit to participate in events being held in connection with the fifth anniversary of Victory Day, which commemorates Azerbaijan’s triumph in liberating its territories from Armenian occupation. The statement said that the premier was undertaking the visit at the invitation of Azerbaijan President Aliyev. “During the visit, the prime minister will attend the official Victory Day celebrations and hold a meeting with President Aliyev,” the FO said. “Discussions will focus on reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral relations and identifying new avenues to further deepen cooperation in diverse sectors, including trade and investment, energy...
Post a Comment
Read more