Sri Lanka vs Australia, 20th Match, Group A at Colombo, , Mar 05 2011 - Match Result

19.50 And that's that. The game has finally been called off. A real shame but there was no chance it would resume once the rain began with such intensity. Sangakkara was sublime during his half-century, and the game was shaping into a tight contest.

So Sri Lanka and Australia take a point each from the game. Pakistan lead Group A with six points, while Sri Lanka and Australia are level with five points each, though Sri Lanka have played an extra game.

Ponting said it would have been a tough chase. The pitch spun more than Australia expected and Sangakkara was controlling the Sri Lankan innings nicely. Ponting hopes the replacement for Doug Bollinger will be announced in the next two days.

Thank you for all your emails today. Do tune in tomorrow for what should be a cracking day's cricket. South Africa and England play at 9.30 IST, followed by India v Ireland at 14.30 IST. That's it from us at ESPNcricinfo today. Cheers.

19.30 There's no good news, I'm afraid. The rain hasn't stopped in Colombo. It's only a matter of time now, in my opinion. They have to wait until they can formally call it off.

19.00 Still raining. The umpires say they will struggle to get a game. But they won't make the decision just yet. 21.20 is the cut off time for a re-start, but the rain needs to stop well before that so that the ground staff can get the ground ready for play. They will need at least 60-90 minutes to do that.

18.45: I got lots of guesses for Azhar, Kapil and Kumble. But before Tendulkar, it was Srinath. Zubair Ahmed, Zaid and Taimoor Hasan Qazi were the first three I saw with the right answer.

Right, so while we wait for the inevitable - and I apologise for my realism - here's a quesion. Before Tendulkar became India's most-capped World Cup player, who had played the most World Cup matches for India? I won't be able to name and shame all the cricket tragics who get it right, but I will name the first three that I spot.

18.30: Bleakest scenes at the Premadasa. The ground is fully covered. The rain is still falling. Someone's doing the moonwalk on the covers. Someone else is sliding across the surface water and showing off. A large part of the crowd is waiting it out. Commendable optimism. It will need a minor miracle for the game to restart, in my opinion.

18.25: "Who suffers the maximum when a match gets interrupted by rain? Is it Players or Umpires or Crowd or Commercials or Commentators or Cricinfo?" That's a tough one, it is, from Kamal.

Did someone say snow in Lahore earlier? Snow? Seriously? I'm getting lots of email saying it was hail, and not snow. Hail is believable.

Fair comment from Osala: "ICC should be more flexible on deciding when to start a match. Anybody living in Colombo would know that given the weather pattern of last few days it would definitely rain in the evening around 5 o'clock. They should have definitely start this match as a day game. 2002 Champions Trophy finals was the best example. Sri lanka batted twice and shared the trophy with India cos it rained around the start of the second session on both days."

But then again, rain this time of year in Sri Lanka is supposedly unseasonal.

18.17 "Forget reserve grounds - this tourney is so horribly spread out they should be able to manage a reserve *week* for each match. No reason for anything to be called off unless the biblical Flood arrives," says Bryan.

Jawad: "Two weeks back there was snowfall in Lahore for the first time in history... and surely it was before life found on Mars.....!!! then you naver know with mother nature!" Jawad, you don't know Bombay. It'll sink under the monsoon, but snow? Nopes

Kim: "A back-up ground? Marvelous idea! As soon as it starts raining, pack the teams, and the umpires and the TV and media people, coaching staff etc into helicopters and fly them to the back-up field where it presumably isnt raining. A wonder nobody thought of it earlier." And the crowd?

6 pm Still the same situation. Still more rain, a bit lighter than before. Still more puddles on the ground. Lightning in the distance. Pretty dull and forlorn pictures. The cut off time is 9.20 pm to get in a minimum of 20 overs in Australia's innings, and the target would be 154 then.

Nomi: "It's a tragedy that a match of this level get decided by some old-textbook rule and both teams end up splitting points. Better facilities would have been nice say a dome stadium or maybe a back-up field. Hosts countries shouldn't forget that this is a world class event. It generates enough revenue to cover such expenditures. They should be prepared and ready to deal with unforeseen events like this. What's next, final match get decided by some similar rule because it snowed in Mumbai?" Snow in Bombay? You'll find life on Mars before that happens

Irishman: "Not even an Englishman could rain on that Irish parade, son!"

Another gem from Zaltzman: "There's been so much rain here, it must be possible to backdate some of it to Wednesday in Bangalore. At around 7.30pm, preferably."

Priyanka: "there you go: the four semi finalists are the teams that split points. India, England, Australia and Sri Lanka!" Not so soon, not so soon

Sajjad: "these two countries have played their last worldcup match in dark, why they can't in rain today ..."

Ravi: "How about a swimming contest between Dilshan and Tait... ;)"

Jonesy: "Sorry to burst any bubbles, but that rain aint stopping tonight. And even if it does the lads will need snorkels and fins." You won't need all that equipment to head over to our Facebook page.

Andy Zaltzman's latest from Twitter: "Ground authorities are ushering two of every type of cricketer into an ark. I'm being moved on in case the place blows up." "CRICKETERS' ARK UPDATE: Garfield Sobers, Wasim Akram and Mike Yardy arguing over who should take the two left-handed all-rounder spots."

5.30 pm It is pouring down at the Premadasa. The entire ground is not covered though. Wonder why. Short of covers? Huge puddles on the outfield.

kamal: "Did Warne predict rain today?" He said it would be a very close match, and that Australia would win, That still stands as a possibility. Smart Warnie

More Zaltzman on Twitter: "I haven't seen anything this thunderous since Ricky Ponting's face during the Melbourne Test."

rajeev: "Had to turn off TV due to thundering. Please make some sound when match starts again,.." Sound?

Dan: "Good strategic move from Ponting there, using the review on any chance of another wicket, knowing the rain was coming and if it was given would make a significant difference to any D/L calculations. Didn't work, but definitely worth the shot and excellent thinking." Hail Punter

Degant Puri: "Most of my Fantasy League players haven't even got a chance to do anything yet. Damn you rain!"

the rain just got heavy enough for the umpires to send the players back to the dressing room, the covers are coming on, it has gone absolutely dark, very black, not much grey about it anymore. Well, there is some time now to check out our smartphone apps.

light drizzle has started now

Andy Zaltzman tweets: "129-3 after 30. This is cagier than a security-loving parrot at the moment."

slip in place

Thanks George. Australia have managed to keep this partnership to well under four an over. Aravinda de Silva is looking up at the sky, it has gone a threatening shade of grey-black.

Over to Abhishek Purohit for the rest of the innings ...