MELBOURNE, Nov 1o (EW) – Pakistan could become the first team in the history of the T20 World Cup to be named a co-champion with rain expected to make its presence known in Melbourne during the final.
The Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), where the final will take place between Pakistan and either England or India, is expected to take the full force of a deluge on Sunday.
According to the rules, the chasing side must be allowed to face 10 unlike in the group stages where five overs would have sufficed. A reserve day remains an option but the forecast for Monday is not helpful either with a 95% chance of constant rain.
The constant rain has already washed out three matches at the iconic Sydney Cricket Ground, including host Australia’s important fixture against England effectively helping knock the hosts out of the tournament while it helped Ireland claim a famous win over England after rain prematurely ended their Super 12 contest.
The ICC has said that their first priority is to complete the match on the scheduled day, according to the tournament rules, the match is considered as lotus only after playing at least 10 overs in the match innings, in case of rain, the match will start from where it stopped on the reserve day.
In case of a washout over the two days due to rain, the T20 World Cup final will be declared a tie with the two teams being named co-champions as the organisers will not move the decider further.