Rain opens up tight fight for Group B of World Cup

Could the South African weather gods decide the fate of the World Cup's Group B placings?

Rain interrupted the West Indies match with Bangladesh yesterday and left both sides sharing points.

They were points that could prove crucial to the hopes of the West Indies firstly, because they didn't take a maximum four and, secondly, because they were not able to make a significant difference to their net run rate.

What the rain has done is highlight how vulnerable all the teams are in the event of shared points.

All teams will now be wary of that scenario.

What the rain result means, as things stand at the moment, is:

New Zealand need to win their remaining games, against Bangladesh and Canada, as convincingly as possible to ensure a high net run rate.

Sri Lanka, despite their victory over New Zealand, are not in the clear by any means.

They cannot really afford to lose to South Africa.

Although if they did, they could still get around a loss by absolutely thrashing either Kenya or Canada.

South Africa have been given a slim chance of still being able to qualify. Beating Sri Lanka is the minimum they must do because they also need to do well against the minnows to raise their run rate.

For the West Indies there are two chances: they beat Sri Lanka when they meet in Cape Town on Friday, February 28, but if they can't do that they have to hope that South Africa beat Sri Lanka on March 3.

Interestingly, given the worst draw of all the sides in their pool, New Zealand are now in a position of being able to sit back and watch the others scramble for position. What was seen as a potential weakness could well be the saving grace for the side.

With their game against Kenya definitely out of the picture, the side has a chance to rest and recuperate in Durban, and if weather predictions are anything to go by, rain could yet be a factor in several more games.

New Zealand's next match is on Wednesday, February 26 against Bangladesh and their final pool game against Canada is on March 3 against Canada at Benoni, the same day as South Africa and Sri Lanka play a day/night match at Durban.

And who wouldn't be cynical in thinking that draw, which will allow both South Africa and Sri Lanka, but South Africa especially, the opportunity of knowing what they need to do to qualify in the second innings of their game, had been drawn up with exactly this scenario in mind?

The other point to ponder if the trio from Group B advancing to the Super Six were New Zealand, the West Indies and South Africa, is that New Zealand would go ahead with maximum points while the West Indies would have four and South Africa none.

If the West Indies beat Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka then beat South Africa, New Zealand, the West Indies and Sri Lanka would each advance with four points each. And what could be fairer than that?

But whatever else, watch the weather.