Washout puts Sri Lanka into finals

After an interminable delay, the fifth Paktel Cup match, between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, was finally called off without a ball being bowled. Groundsmen scurried across the field, drying the ground and sopping up the mess that overnight rains created. But try as they did, it wasn't enough. The bowlers' run-ups were soggy, and the landing crease was soft, which meant it could be damaged easily by the constant thumpings of the bowlers' front foot.

The two umpires - Simon Taufel and Aleem Darat - decided to abandon the match at 1pm local time after a third inspection. "We did not want a silly game to be played with wet patches," Taufel said. "The safety of the players was most important." Both Marvan Atapattu and John Dyson told the umpires that the state of the bowlers' footmarks made any chance of playing impossible.

Both teams got three points each, and so Sri Lanka qualified for the final against Pakistan at Lahore on October 16.

The match had been vital for Zimbabwe, for it gave them a chance, however faint, of reaching the finals, but Sri Lanka simply needed the practice. With a league game and a final to play against Pakistan, it would have held them in good stead.