When it stops raining, Kinrara starts draining

The second semi-final to decide which team would play India on Sunday was finely poised. Pakistan had lost two early wickets chasing 261 but Ahmed Shehzad and Umair Amin were rebuilding the run-chase with a plucky counterattack. Each boundary, every outside edge, and even mistimed shots were cheered by several Pakistan fans. The party ended abruptly with the heavy clouds, which had gathered during the dinner break, bursting shortly into the Pakistan innings. The rain was monsoonal and it was relentless until the cut-off time.

The match had to be postponed until Saturday but if you spoke to any of the ground staff, they said that if the rain had stopped in time, they could have got the ground ready for play in a jiffy despite the amount of rain.

The Kinrara Oval drains fabulously. Sitting in the press box, I could see puddles of water gathering near the covers but a few minutes later they had disappeared on their own, seeping through the grass.

The ground staff told me the venue had been designed and built by a New Zealand company and they had installed state-of-the-art drainage facilities. The ground slopes gradually as you move from the pitch towards the boundaries and the grass is planted on sandy soil which is ideal for water to percolate. There are also layers of gravel below the sand but the key to the fantastic drainage are the slit pipes that have been placed about three metres under the soil with a gap of one metre between each pipe. The water from the surface seeps into these pipes and it flows towards the larger drains outside the boundary. With the kind of rain Malaysia gets, the Kinrara needs the best drainage it can get.