By Canadian Press

Weather in Florida could disrupt Canadian cricketers’ T20 World Cup date with India

Jun 13, 2024 | 1:05 PM

Canada hopes Mother Nature doesn’t interfere with a high-profile matchup with top-ranked India at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on Saturday.

But the weather forecast doesn’t look good for Lauderhill, Fla.

Tuesday’s match between Sri Lanka and Nepal, the tournament’s first at Central Broward Park & Broward County Stadium, was abandoned without a ball played. And Lauderhill was under a flood watch through Friday evening.

“We’re hoping things will get better but I think the weather forecast is still not the best,” said Canada coach Pubudu Dassanayake.

‘We want to play this game … We want to play against these teams and see where we stand,” he added.

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With only India (3-0) assured of moving on to the Super-8 stage, the other team to move on from Group A will be determined by games Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in Lauderhill.

It’s the United States versus Ireland on Friday, Canada versus India on Saturday and Pakistan versus Ireland on Sunday, with all three games 10:30 a.m. local time starts.

The 18th-ranked U.S. (2-1) is in the driver’s seat to join India, with No. 6 Pakistan (1-2) needing a win over No. 11 Ireland on Sunday and a U.S. loss to Ireland (0-2) on Friday.

The 23rd-ranked Canadians (1-2) remain mathematically alive when to comes to moving on, albeit with a long and unlikely list of ifs and buts.

Canada would need to upset India, radically improve its net run rate and hope that the U.S. and Pakistan both lose to Ireland to have any chance of advancing. Even then, that scenario would leave the Canadians and Irish tied on four points with run rate coming into play.

A more likely scenario, if the game goes ahead, is that the Canadians end their first-ever trip to the T20 tournament against India. The U.S. can officially end Canada — and Pakistan — hopes with a victory over Ireland on Friday if the weather co-operates.

A minimum of five overs is required for a match to be official and there are no reserve days for the group-stage matches. A washout would likely mean the U.S., with two wins already, joins India in advancing.

Canada opened with a seven-wicket loss to the U.S. in Texas before defeating Ireland by 12 runs and losing to Pakistan by seven wickets, with both games in suburban New York.

“We were sad that we couldn’t beat the U.S.,” said Dassanayake. “The U.S. lately has put up a good team. Right now they’re playing good cricket. We almost won that game. If we had won that game, we would have been in a very good position. But overall every game that we’ve played, all three, I think we earned respect from the cricketing world.

“It’s more than the final results. It’s the way we played and the talent that we showed to the world. I think everybody is impressed.”

India won the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, finished runner-up in 2014 and reached the semifinals in 2016 and 2022. This year’s squad is a favourite to win again.

“They’re the best and one of the most experienced teams,” said Dassanayake.

The bookmakers are not expecting a miracle Canada win. Stake, Drake’s bookmaker of choice, has India’s odds of beating Canada at 1.03, meaning a $100 bet on India will return $103. Canada is 12.50 to win (a $100 bet returns $1,250).

India beat Canada by 128 runs when they met in one-day play at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 13, 2024.

Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press