IND vs NED, World Cup 2023: India’s second warm-up game abandoned due to heavy rain

As Thiruvananthapuram - which was put on orange alert by IMD - witnessed incessant rain for over 16 hours, the match officials waited for two hours before deciding to call it off.

Ground staff prepare the field after rain delayed the start of the ICC Cricket World Cup Warm-up match between India and Netherlands in Thiruvananthapuram. | Photo Credit: AP

India’s second warm-up fixture against Netherlands ahead of the ODI World Cup was abandoned due to heavy rain.

As the city - which was put on orange alert by the Indian Meteorological Department - witnessed incessant rain for over 16 hours, the match officials waited for two hours before deciding to call it off, without a ball being bowled.

While neither of the teams travelled to the ground owing to the inclement weather conditions, a couple of thousand fans - donning India colours - braved the rain and waited patiently till a spell of heavy shower dashed their dreams, around 4 o’clock in the evening.

After its first warm-up game against England was washed out in Guwahati on Saturday, the Indian team travelled for more than 3,400 kilometres - from the northeastern part of the country to the extreme south - hoping to get some game time. But the trip proved to be futile. As the day progressed and the rain increased, hopes of getting game time went up in smoke.

The Kerala Cricket Association announced that the entire amount of ticket charges collected from the spectators would be refunded as per the refund policy. In a statement, the state unit said, “Customers who booked via BookMyShow online portal will get a complete refund which will get credited to the original mode of online payment within 7-10 working days. And those customers who purchased tickets for the match offline will have to show their physical ticket (in good condition) at the Box office to claim their refunds.”

With both its warm-up games washed out, the Indian team travels to Chennai without any game time, and the team management would be hoping for some proper training sessions once they reach the Tamil Nadu capital on Wednesday.

India and Australia came into the warm-up games on the back of a three-match ODI series, with the hope of testing the bench strength ahead of the marquee event. But in the end, the Men in Blue had to be content with a long training session on Monday, where most players - except Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Mohammad Shami and Shreyas Iyer - sweated it out in the nets.

While India travels to Chennai, Netherlands will fly to Hyderabad on Wednesday for its tournament opener against Pakistan on October 6.