Rain keeps Williamson nervous

One of the reasons Dambulla is favoured as a one-day venue is because it is in the country’s north-eastern dry zone, with little rain from February to September. That is why there had been no wash-out in 39 previous ODIs at the stadium, a streak that came to a wet end on Thursday.

An army of white T-shirted groundstaff already had the covers in place at the scheduled start of the match, in anticipation of the torrential downpour that lashed the stadium for an hour. Once that stopped, the many tyres holding the covers in place were rolled off, raising hopes of play. But those expectations were dashed when, like a line-and-length man taking over from a tear-away quick, a steady drizzle replaced the earlier storm. Two hours of that meant everyone would have to reassemble again on Friday for a fresh start.

While it frustrated most people, one man would have been particularly frazzled. Kane Williamson was itching to get off the mark in international cricket and show the world why he was dubbed a future Michael Clarke after his maiden first-class century, at the age of 18.

New Zealand captain Ross Taylor had chosen to bat as well on Thursday, meaning Williamson would have been getting primed for his third one-day innings. It is normal to be nervous in the early stages of one’s career, more so for a youngster who has been touted as a rare talent, and even more so when he has started with two ducks. He couldn’t have done much about his debut dismissal, a near unplayable delivery from Praveen Kumar that cleaned him up, while his second failure was more of an error on his part, nicking a full ball to slip.

“You’ve just got to say to him that he is a good player,” Taylor said when asked how he would lift the 20-year-old’s confidence after Williamson’s second match. “Some of the best players in the world didn’t get off to the greatest starts in their career. I’m sure he will be nervous the next time he goes out to bat, but once he gets his first run he’ll be away. I’m sure we just need to give him all the confidence which he can take on board and sleep well.” The wash-out means Williamson will have one more anxious day of waiting.

Perhaps he should take inspiration from another New Zealand middle-order prodigy, Martin Crowe, who started with single-digit scores in his first six international innings on being picked as a 19-year-old before going on to become a shoo-in for the country’s all-time XI.

Or not. Crowe has spoken in the past about the pressures of reaching the top level early. “From the age of 14, when I started playing for the under-23 team, I was blown out of my mind trying to cope. People think you are coping well, but you're not. And that's why for the next 30 years, off the field, I had a string of problems with relationships and marriages, and brushes with coaches,” Crowe had said.

One bunch of people not having any worries in Dambulla was a group of fans in the lower tier of the covered stand. Bugles blared, drums were banged, and flags were waved amid a whole lot of singing and dancing as the lack of cricket failed to dampen their spirits. Besides the pitter-patter of the rain, their ceaseless partying was the only sound ringing round the Dambulla stadium on a day when most fans made a swift exit on realising that chance of play was remote.