New Zealand cricket team have already been at the receiving end of inclement weather in Bengaluru, losing to Pakistan via DLS method in their last ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match even after posting a 400-plus total on the board. Their next match against Sri Lanka at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru may also get washed out due to rain with the Karnataka capital witnessing lot of rain over the last week.
The MET prediction for Thursday afternoon and evening is not looking very promising for cricket fans at the moment. According to weather prediction, there is 90 per cent chance of rain in Bengaluru around afternoon when captains Kane Williamson and Kusal Mendis will head out toss around 130pm IST.
The maximum temperature will be around 27 degrees with ‘couple of showers and a thunderstorm’ predicted for the afternoon. There will be about 76 per cent humidity with 87 per cent cloud cover over the city. Around 6.9mm of rain is predicted on Thursday afternoon.
Even in evening, there is 90 per cent possibility of rain with 4.1mm of rain predicted for the second half of the match. The humidity will rise to 93 per cent and there will be about 82 per cent cloud cover.
New Zealand current have 8 points from 7 matches and are placed fourth on the Points Table after suffering from four successive losses. A washed out match with 1 point each for Sri Lanka and New Zealand will mean that either Pakistan and Afghanistan could surpass the Black Caps on the Points Table.
“Yeah, I mean there’s lots of things that we can’t control and the weather is one of those. You mentioned that there might be some of it, there may be a thought in the back of your mind, but at the end of the day, our focus will be on the cricket that we want to play and trying to put all our focus and energy into that. That gives us the best chance of putting out a good performance. And so that’ll be what we try and do,” New Zealand captain Kane Williamson said in the pre-match press conference.
Bengaluru has been batter’s paradise and the team winning the toss will look to chase like Pakistan in the last match keeping in mind the weather factor. “We’ll still have to very much see what the pitch is like. There’s been a lot of weather around and it could look different tomorrow. So, we’ll just have to play what’s in front of us and focus on our skills as a batting and bowling unit, whether that’s looking to be aggressive or trying to handle some death overs as well as we can or with the bat, assess conditions and try and do the job and build those partnerships,” Williamson added.