It increasingly appeared as if game two of the seven-match Future Cup one-day series might have gone the same way as Saturday's opener in Bangalore, before the sun came out in all its splendour on Monday afternoon to raise visions of some play on Tuesday.

The rains that have disrupted normal life in this part of the country returned with a vengeance on Sunday evening after staying away for a major part of the day. Already saturated, the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium was almost buried under the deluge. Monday morning's continual rains prevented the ground staff from undoing the damage of the previous days, apart from forcing the Indian and Australian teams to abandon practice plans for the day.

With the practice pitches damaged beyond repair and the outfield in a sorry state, the players stayed away from Tuesday's match venue. Only Adam Gilchrist and coach Tim Neilsen from the Australian party, and the Indian coaching trio of Lalchand Rajput, Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh, drove over to survey the damage.

The unscheduled day off meant the players could put their feet up and soak in a rare day of inertia. Inevitably, there was a beeline for the gym at the teams' beautiful hotel that provided a panoramic view of the backwaters; for the most part, though, the players used the time to catch up with each other as well as on sleep, and not necessarily in that order!

The looming uncertainty over the prospects of play will perforce make it difficult for the teams to focus all their energies on preparation, particularly with their training sessions having gone for a toss. No one will rue that more than Ricky Ponting.

The Australian captain is making excellent recovery from his hamstring injury, but is far from a certainty to make a comeback, especially having missed out on testing the hammy.
As remote as a prompt start is, neither India nor Australa will want to make the mistake of assuming the worst and relaxing mentally until such time that the umpires formally reach a decision. And nor will they, you can rest assured.
Riding the wave of euphoria generated by the Twenty20 World Cup triumph, India were quickly brought down to earth at the Chinnaswamy stadium on Saturday. On a track that offered encouragement through appreciable bounce, the four-pronged Indian pace attack was put in its place by Michael Clarke and, to only a lesser extent, by Brad Haddin. More than anyone else, it was India's most successful bowler at the Twenty20 who copped the most flak as he got both his length and line wrong, and was repeatedly picked off.

Rare off-day
Rudra Pratap Singh can be excused a rare off-day at work simply because he has been outstanding right through the summer. In England, he struck a wonderful tandem with Zaheer Khan, hurrying England's best with his ability to hit the bat harder and quicker than the batsmen expected. The key to his success has been a relaxed approach to the bowling crease, excellent wrist position and that deadly final flick of the wrist which, really, is his greatest asset.

In Bangalore, the Uttar Pradesh left-arm paceman either pitched it far too short, or drifted too far down leg. Australia's batsmen, positive-minded as they are, kept feasting on him, neutralising a big threat. RP Singh will be itching to set the record straight. The vastly different conditions here -- despite the hardness of the track, this is expected to play much slower than the Chinnaswamy strip -- will force the Indian think-tank to revisit their four-paceman strategy. An additional spin component in the shape of Harbhajan Singh, now fully recovered from a stiff neck, could be introduced, though who he will replace is a little uncertain at the moment. India will also be mindful of the fact that offie Ramesh Powar too had a poor game in Bangalore.

Sourav Ganguly's absence through a hamstring injury should see the return of Robin Uthappa, while Australia will field an unchanged side unless Ponting is declared ready for battle, and comes in for Brad Hodge. All this assuming, of course, that we get a game.