It seems that rain has followed Team India and Australia from Visakhapatnam to Chennai now. The third and final ODI of the three-match series is set to take place at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday (March 22). It will be a hot and humid day for both teams to play the series decider.
The series is currently level at 1-1 with India winning the first ODI while Australia levelled it with a massive 10-wicket win in the second game on Sunday (March 19). Although rain was expected to affect the Vizag match, but Mitchell Starc and Co. decimated the Indian team before weather could have any say.
However, Chennai can expected some rain and even thunderstorms and both skippers – Rohit Sharma and Steve Smith – will have to keep one eye on the weather as well. “It will be mostly sunny, hot and very humid with a thunderstorm in a couple of place,” the weather prediction for Chennai read.
Although the high of day is expected to be around 33 degrees but real feel will be around 43 degrees Celsius. There is about 40 per cent chance of rain and 24 per cent chance of thunderstorms during the day.
It had rained in the city on Monday (March 20) which meant that MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings needed to cut their training session short. A hot and humid day could mean that pace bowlers will once again have some seam and swing on offer. However, the 22 yards pitch at the Chepauk is expected to be much more spin-friendly as compared the Mumbai and Vizag.
India are going into the decider having already played eight home games – three versus Sri Lanka, three versus New Zealand and three against Australia finishing on Wednesday. Did head coach Rahul Dravid achieve what he had set out to in nine home ODIs, keeping World Cup in mind? “We have to a large extent. We have got a lot more clarity at the end of these nine games irrespective of what happens tomorrow. We need to keep building on that clarity.
“For us it is now the different playing XI combinations and just ensuring that we play different combinations at times just to ensure that we are able to do that in the World Cup and we are not surprised by anything in the World Cup,” Dravid told mediapersons in Chennai on Tuesday.