New
IND
Full commentary
end of over 163 runs
IND: 69/2CRR: 4.31 
Virat Kohli3 (9b)
Ajinkya Rahane28 (50b 2x4)
Xavier Doherty 3-0-10-0
James Faulkner 1-0-2-0

8.05 pm It's off. The washout is official. Australia and India will take two points each from this game. Australia were already through to the final, and India are now trailing England by three points. If England beat India in Perth, they are through. If India beat England, India are through. If points are shared, England are through. Simple.

Thank you for all your emails, it's kept us going through a frustrating day. We'll be back on January 30 to find out who plays Australia in the final. Cheers.

7.50 pm The umpires are inspecting the conditions underfoot at the SCG, where it is still raining though. Might have to brace ourselves for some bad news shortly.

Tandy: "Also Clint McKay is 13th in the ODI rankings I believe. Is the Aus Bowling depth that good?" He's 15th in the ODI rankings for bowlers. Mitchell Johnson and Starc are the only Australian bowlers above him.

Chirag: "The attacking nature of Rayudu could be because Indian team assumed rain interruption and hence, wanted to have a good score so that D/L effect could be minimized and Australian have a good score to chase in case overs are reduced. "

7.35 pm Status quo at the SCG in terms of weather.

SamRoy: "@Pradyot I think Moeen Ali will be more successful than Jadeja as a bowler in this tournament and is a far better batsman. Jadeja has no variations at all."

James: "My fantasy team Gayle, Sharma, Clarke, Morgan, Maxwell, Anderson, Afridi, Dhoni, Johnson, Anderson, Cummins." Budget permitting of course.

Nick: "@James, no Steyn or AB or Amla? in fact no SA bowler or batsman? this makes nobody's fantasy!"

Mick: "@Snehil India regularly play at about 15 different grounds, while most countries only play regularly at a handful, explaining the difference (even though India play more ODIs)."

Ash: "So..If it becomes a 20 over affair.. India can bat only for 4 overs? That's unfair isn't it?" They will scale the total upwards using the mysterious D/L formula. Assuming we get back on, of course.

Tandy: "Clint Mckay is 4th on that list of bowlers. What's happened to him so much that he isn't even in the reckoning?"

Kashish: "And my fantasy team is Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli, Steven Smith,AB de Villiers, James Taylor, Glenn Maxwell, Ravindra Jadeja, Mitchell Starc, Tim Southee and Mohammad Irfan."

Vijay: "@Ash: D/L is not a mysterious formula as you think. If this is a 20 overs match, 1st inns total will be increased based on the resources remain (71.98 for india) during 1st inns rain interruption. India will get 70 runs as bonus. So literally india is 139/2 for 16 overs"

7.05 pm Looking ahead to the World Cup, here are the players with the top batting and bowling averages in Australia and New Zealand in the last five years. Might be useful information for when you pick your fantasy teams.

Pradyot: "My fantasy team will be -Warner, Amla, Kohli, Williamson, Smith, De Villiers, Faulkner, Jadeja, Starc, Steyn, Southee." You might need a very generous budget to fit all of them in.

Scott: "Those lists not so helpful however given that David Hussey is apparently one of Australia's best bowlers." Hah, well you can't win them all when it comes to stats.

Nishant: "And only Indian to feature is Mohd Shami from the bunch of 10-12 bowlers India have tried over the last 4 years."

Mark: "Interesting stats but they only tell part of the story. Daniel Vettori's average is down near the bottom of the list but he is the only one with an economy rate below 4. As seen in the last ODI versus Sri Lanka, sometimes other bowlers reap the benefits of the pressure his economy rate builds."

aslam_cric: "The bowlers' list is not so appealing but the top three names in the batting list are intriguing. AB De Villiers (The best bet right now), Mommsen (Low on Fantasy team points weight but effective) and Trott who is out the picture"

Richard: "Only one Indian bowler in that list. Shami, that too on #28. Indians will top the list of worst bowlers in any country, Ishant as the topper. "

Aamir: "and not even a single Pakistani bowlers in the entire list...sums up the situation for Pakistan ???" They just haven't played enough in these countries, I suppose.

Snehil: "Wait a minute, that can't be right.. You're saying not one ground in India has hosted more than 50 ODIs??" That's right. Eden Gardens, with 28 ODIs, is No 1. the Chinnaswamy in Bangalore has hosted 24.

6.55 pm The rain on our parade remains unabated at the SCG. This tweet from WWOS a minute ago isn't pleasant to look at.

Andrew Schulz: "Um, Andrew, we are talking about weather in February and March. Where do you get your information that more matches have been washed out in Brisbane at this time than in Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide? Many ODI finals at Sydney in this time have been affected."

6.15 pm Rain continues at the SCG. If this game does not have a result, the teams will take two points each from it, which means the final league game between England and India is a straight knockout for a chance to play Australia in the final. Bonus points and net run rate go out of the picture. But if there's another washout or a tie at the WACA, then England go through. But there's never been an ODI washout in Perth.

The latest a 20-over game can start today is roughly 8.45 pm, give or take.

Dev: "I can't believe my eyes Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, which has taken so much pouring over the years is in the list of grounds with the fewest ODI no-results.. are you sure?" Well only 19 grounds have hosted at least 50 ODIs, that's the qualification for that list.

Andrew: "@James So no one at CA will listen to you about more games at the Gabba? Well maybe that is based on the Gabba having a higher % of games washed out compared to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney!"

6 pm It's getting worse, says Dan Brettig at the SCG. The rain that is.

Ann-Maree: "Well done CA. Took the 'traditional' Australia Day game away from Adelaide Oval, and what have you got? Many rain delays and possibly half the crowd you would have got in Adelaide. If we had not broken 40,000 @ the Oval I would have been shocked. If the game had been in Adelaide, we would have been enjoying the innings break ... after the Indian innings had been completed. *sigh*"

5.30 pm The despicable weather for cricket continues at the SCG.

Here's Graeme Smith on South Africa dealing with the 'chokers' tag at this World Cup. "You can't get away from it. It's about fronting up, it's about dealing with it, it's about saying - "Look we haven't won a tournament yet, we haven't won a knockout game yet but it's about facing up and winning." But as always, they will begin the World Cup as serious contenders.

James: "Prepare for more of these delays at the World Cup, due to the chosen locations to stage the big matches. There should have been more matches at the Gabba! I have written to the organizers on a number of occasions, but nothing ever seems to get through."

Duncan: "Should have played it in Perth.. I think it's been twenty eight years since it rained.."

How different is the 2015 World Cup compared to the 2011 tournament in terms of rules and playing conditions? We've listed ten things that are different from fielding restrictions to the disappearance of Super Overs.

Graeme: "For James, Brisbane historically has the same number of days with more than 1mm of rain as Sydney, and nearly twice as many as Melbourne for Feb and March. Check your facts!"

5.20 pm Still no improvement at the SCG. While it rains, you could spend your time by looking at this: The closest Tests ever, to take a break from the ongoing abundance of ODIs.

Brian: "Still not raining in Adelaide... :P"

Rahul: "Since, December 2013, Dhawan has played 13 inning in ODIs played in Aus/NZ/SA/England and averages 19.9 with one score of above 40. If one takes into account only ODIs in Aus & NZ he averages 13 with a highest scroe of 32 in 7 innings. How does he even make it to the probables list? High time that India recognizes the difference between domestic and overseas batting success - each requires a different skill set!"

Rohan: "Let's take a break from punching non-performers and discuss why the team has lagged behind others in ODI batting (in first hour) since the exit of the big names. Too often, even in home ODI's, the run rate is ridiculous, batsmen focus on shots rather than rotating strike and we stare at scores like 70/2 after 15 if we are lucky to catch a few boundaries. Apart from the Windies, I haven't seen any other major team flounder so repeatedly in the opening exchanges over the past 3-4 years."

4.57 pm Argh. The rain is back. Covers have been brought on in a jiffy.

Here's something to pass the time. Michael Bevan was a master of the ODI chase. Here he tells you how it is done.

Karthik: "Is there a chance for India to drop Dhawan from WC Squad and Bring back Murali Vijay?" Well Dhawan's staying put in the squad unless he gets injured. And there's no way in for Vijay unless someone gets injured.

15.6
1
Doherty to Kohli, 1 run

looked to defend but he gets an inside edge that goes towards fine leg

15.5
Doherty to Kohli, no run

Kohli tries to cut but the ball is too close to him and he gets a bottom edge into the pitch near his feet. Looks like the ball hit the top of the bat handle actually

15.4
1
Doherty to Rahane, 1 run

Rahane drives a full ball off the front foot past the diving Doherty towards long off

15.3
1
Doherty to Kohli, 1 run

Kohli moves forward to a slower, fuller ball and plays a wristy drive through cover

15.2
Doherty to Kohli, no run

defended on the off side

15.1
Doherty to Kohli, no run

Kohli drives the ball back to Doherty

end of over 152 runs
IND: 66/2CRR: 4.40 
Ajinkya Rahane27 (49b 2x4)
Virat Kohli1 (4b)
James Faulkner 1-0-2-0
Xavier Doherty 2-0-7-0
14.6
Faulkner to Rahane, no run

nudged off the pads on the leg side

14.5
Faulkner to Rahane, no run

a full ball on middle and leg, pushed to mid-on from the crease

14.4
Faulkner to Rahane, no run

a fuller ball outside off stump, Rahane moves forward and plays a crisp drive to mid-off

14.3
2
Faulkner to Rahane, 2 runs

short ball and Rahane gets on top of the bounce and rolls his wrists to pull the ball down to deep square leg

14.2
Faulkner to Rahane, no run

driven firmly to the fielder at mid-off

14.1
Faulkner to Rahane, no run

a good length ball on leg, Rahane misses the glance and gets hit on the thigh

Jack: "why is rayudu trying to charge every ball dancing down the wicket?he got out in the same way last match and here he charged starc second ball!!"

Faulkner from over the wicket.

end of over 142 runs
IND: 64/2CRR: 4.57 
Virat Kohli1 (4b)
Ajinkya Rahane25 (43b 2x4)
Xavier Doherty 2-0-7-0
Mitchell Marsh 3-0-21-1
13.6
Doherty to Kohli, no run

Kohli strides forward to defend on the off side

13.5
Doherty to Kohli, no run

defended on the front foot on the off side

13.4
Doherty to Kohli, no run

pushed quickly through the air on middle stump, defended on the leg side

13.3
1
Doherty to Rahane, 1 run

worked through square leg for a single

13.2
Doherty to Rahane, no run

defended on the front foot on the leg side

13.1
1
Doherty to Kohli, 1 run

pushed to long on for a single and Kohli's off the mark first ball

end of over 136 runs • 1 wicket
IND: 62/2CRR: 4.76 
Ajinkya Rahane24 (41b 2x4)
Virat Kohli0 (0b)
Mitchell Marsh 3-0-21-1
Xavier Doherty 1-0-5-0
12.6
Marsh to Rahane, no run

defended on the off side

12.5
W
Marsh to Rayudu, OUT

that is a sensational catch from Warner. Rayudu had charged and slashed at the ball, carving it high over the infield on the off side. Warner went after it from cover, I reckon. Running back as the ball swirled away from him but fast enough to get under it and judged it to perfection. He covered so much ground to get under that catch, and he makes a statement to the Indian fans giving him a hard time.

Ambati Rayudu c Warner b Marsh 23 (24b 2x4 1x6 26m) SR: 95.83
AskESPNcricinfo Logo
Instant answers to T20 questions
India Innings
<1 / 3>

Carlton Mid One-Day International Tri-Series

TEAMMWLPTNRR
AUS430150.467
ENG42290.425
IND4032-0.942