Pakistan faced India in their Super Four encounter in the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday and the rain played spoilsport.
The match was called off for today due to continuous rain spells and now will continue tomorrow since a reserve day had been set aside for the high-voltage clash.
When the match was stopped due to rain, India were 147/2 in 24.1 overs.
However, Jay Shah, the President of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC), who did his best to make a mockery of the Asia Cup and did it successfully so, was criticised by fans on social media platforms due to his stubbornness in hosting the crucial matches in Colombo, where continuous rain spells are predicted for the next 10 days.
The fans had been waiting for India-Pakistan for almost a year since the last time these two teams competed was in the T20 World Cup 2022 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Stadium in Australia.
Although the two teams also had a face-off on September 2 in Kandy but that was called off due to rain without the Green Shirts playing a single ball.
Here is how fans and analysts reacted on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the play was called off for today.
It has to be mentioned that there is a 90% chance of rain to play spoilsport once again tomorrow when the two teams will come face-to-face to resume the play.
With the Cricket World Cup around the corner, the Asia Cup was held in its original 50-over format so the Asian teams could play and finalise their squads but as it seems, with rain likely to interrupt the remaining Super Four matches including the event's final, the teams will not be able to prepare the way they should have.
Lineups:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf