India vs South Africa 2022, 2nd ODI Rain Update: Weather in Paarl
It will be a sunny day at Boland Park as India look to level the series against South Africa in the second ODI on Friday, January 21. Paarl will see absolutely no rain today, meaning we can expect another cracking contest between the two sides.
South Africa won their first ODI, riding on centuries from Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen. The hosts set a formidable 297-run target, with India falling 31 runs short despite fighting fifties from Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Shardul Thakur.
With both teams returning to the same venue for the second ODI, we take a look at the weather and the storyline so far.
Weather at Boland Park on Friday: Sunny
Weather.com predicts a sunny day with minimal cloud cover (3%) and a humidity of 57%. The temperature will hover between 39 and 33 degrees Celsius during noon.
The day will be perfect for an uninterrupted game of cricket. Although the Test series did see some sessions being lost due to rain, the ODIs, or at least the second one, will be unaffected.
India vs South Africa 2022: The ODI series story so far
KL Rahul, who is leading India in the absence of the injured Rohit Sharma, didn't have the greatest of starts with his ODI captaincy either. The visitors fell short in their chase after the South African bowlers strangled them in the middle overs. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant's questionable approaches were discussion points well after the game.
It is unlikely that India will change their playing XI for the second game. Player-turned-commentator and analyst Aakash Chopra opined it was too soon to ring in the changes.
In a Q&A session on his YouTube channel, Chopra was asked if Suryakumar must replace Shreyas for the second ODI.
Disagreeing with that thought, the former India batter responded:
“Can’t drop Shreyas Iyer after one failure and bring in someone else. It won’t be fair as he needs to get a decent number of chances to prove himself. If you keep chopping and changing after every failure, things won’t work. But one thing is for sure, the bouncer trap against Shreyas is going to be used more and more. It is out in the open that he doesn’t like the short ball. Still, Sky did not play the first match, so he will have to wait for his opportunity.”
It remains to be seen if India will level the series or if the Proteas clinch it with one game to go.