Rain to play big role in WC semi-final line-up: Finch

TAUNTON, England: Australia captain Aaron Finch believes that wet weather that is currently prevailing in the best part of England might have a big outcome in World Cup’s semi-final line-up.

Finch’s Australia will take on Pakistan in a World Cup here at the County Ground on Wednesday. It’s been raining here for the last few days and the weather forecast doesn’t look good either for match day.

Pakistan came to Taunton from Bristol where their match against Sri Lanka was abandoned with a single ball bowled. The Australians, who have two wins from three outings, haven’t been affected by the rain but Finch is fully aware that he cannot leave the fate of his team in the hands of the weather.

“… the weather, I think it might play a huge part in the next few days. Next week it starts to fine up and it looks good across the country for the remainder of the tournament.

“But it's important that you get early wins on the board because if they do play a part you don't want to be on the wrong end of a couple of washouts that might leave you just outside that top four.”

The Bristol game between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh was also abandoned on Tuesday which means that so far three World Cup matches have been washed out so far.

Sarfraz Ahmed, Pakistan’s captain, was a lot more philosophical about stressing that weather was beyond anybody’s control.

“You can't control the weather, you know. Whatever happens it's for both teams,” he said.

But Sarfraz was quick to add that his team will prepare a strategy in case it is forced to play a rain-shortened match on Wednesday.

“Definitely if the match is short, the planning is changed,” he said.

Sarfraz agreed that the toss will be crucial on Wednesday. “Both the team would want to win the toss. If we win the toss, we would definitely want to bowl first.”