Women's World Cup: How washouts at Colombo have kept India alive in semifinal race

Rain Gods smile on India: Colombo washout keeps World Cup hopes afloat (Photo- PTI)

After three straight losses, Harmanpreet Kaur's squad is looking at Thursday's India-New Zealand match in Navi Mumbai as a must-win tie. That being said, even if the White Ferns defeat the co-hosts, they will still have a good chance of reaching the semifinals, as per the tournament rules.

The cause was a peculiarity in the playing circumstances and, more importantly, the tournament's schedule, which was decided upon with little consideration for the typical Colombo weather at this time of year.

After five games, India and New Zealand are tied for fourth place with four points each, although the latter has had two "no results". Since the number of wins determines the first tie-breaker amongst teams with the same number of points, they will probably need to defeat both India and England to advance to the final four.

New Zealand will have the right to attribute some of their issues on external factors. Four of the ten games that have been played at the R Premadasa Stadium thus far have produced no outcomes, with three occurring in the past week or so. The Sri Lanka vs Pakistan match is probably the only one that will have any bearing on the tournament's overall outcome.

Two of the remaining six games were shortened to 20 overs each, with the winning team — South Africa in both cases — being more focused on getting out of the weather than on whatever their rivals, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, would throw at them in the closing stages.

Laura Wolvaardt, the captain of South Africa, even refused to use the Decision Review System in the latter match in order to save time. She even used part-time spinners to acquire enough overs to qualify as a game, which is not what one would anticipate in the top women's cricket competition.

The fact that New Zealand's matches against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in Colombo, which they expected to win, ended sharing points has left them in an enviable position. Sophie Devine's team is in a difficult situation after losing to South Africa and Australia to begin the season.

“If you talk to any cricketer, weather is probably the most frustrating thing to have to deal with and unfortunately, it’s out of your control. And for us, this past week, 10 days have been frustrating. We just wanted to play cricket,” the New Zealand captain said before the match against India. “You wait four years and you want to be playing as much cricket as possible.”

Since October falls during the transitional inter-monsoon season, it is no secret that Sri Lanka experiences a lot of rainfall during this month. Once it became apparent that Pakistan would not be visiting India, the timetable should have been finalised with the maximum average precipitation volume and number of rainy days occurring during this month.

The Asia Cup, which was played in the island nation two years ago, was also impacted by the weather, so the organizers made an unprecedented decision to add a reserve day to an India-Pakistan league match — just that one match — midway through the competition. It's not that they didn't have any prior experience to draw from.

With the exception of India, who had to play in early October, every team had to play at least two games in Colombo and was frequently at the mercy of the weather. On a few of match days, it appeared like the diligent groundskeepers at the stadium spent more time in the middle, constantly putting on and taking off covers, than the cricketers.

As was the case in the ICC Champions Trophy earlier this year, there was a chance to move part of the tournament's matches to the United Arab Emirates. One could attribute this to bad luck or the whims of the weather gods.

Even while weather and rain have always been a feature of cricket, when they become so commonplace and predictable that they affect who has a chance to win a major tournament, it somehow compromises the competition's integrity.