Magic drains and disappearing puddles

During the interval after the rain ceased and before play began, Wayne Parnell, the South African captain, and the team's media manager stood staring intently at the ground. Their attention was focused on a puddle created by the ground staff, who had mopped up water from the covers and dumped it on the outfield. It was a sizeable amount of water and the puddle was not small. However as Parnell stared at the puddle, it disappeared right before his eyes. The outfield drains so quickly at the Kinrara that a supersopper, not that they have one, is rendered redundant.

The claims from the ground staff that they could have started play in an hour on Friday evening if the monsoonal showers had stopped were not empty boasts. I woke up at 5am this morning and it was raining – a radio commentator said the showers had started at 3am. It rained incessantly until around 11am, that's about eight hours and yet the umpires strode out to call play at precisely 12.20 pm. The drainage here must rank among the best in the world.

The players had arrived at the ground before 10am and most of them were sitting inside their tents while the weather delayed the start. There was music from the South African tent while several Pakistan players took walks around the ground. The moment the rain stopped, both sets of players took the field, knowing that play would begin sooner rather than later. Somehow word got around that the match was starting and several Pakistan fans also turned up, despite the delay. It was fitting that the semi-final had not been reduced to a farcical 20-over contest, and we had the fabulous infrastructure to thank for that.