As Sarfraz Ahmad, the captain of Pakistan, kept persistently yawning, their Prime Minister Imran Khan and the World Cup winning captain in 1992, putting five consecutive tweets on cricket, India had no choice but to win, within the 75-yard radius.

Even the weather could not come to the rescue of Pakistan, which is at the moment second last in the points table. Weather was their last resort but even the Duckworth Lewis method also went in favour of the team which performed well on the ground. However, this World Cup will be remembered for the washout games due to inclement weather.

The most unpredictable thing in England is its weather. In fact, during the course of the India-Pakistan match, the weather more or less 'behaved' itself, allowing the match to finish which looked very unlikely on Saturday. The weather predictions said 60 per cent chances of rain with a humidity of 75 per cent. The good part of this match was that after put in to bat first, at least India played all its 50 overs with just one interruption which did not lead to curtailment of the overs.

International Cricket Council (ICC) has faced a lot of wrath of the die-hard fans of cricket globally. Four matches in the most coveted World Cup tournament were washed out due to rains and there was no fair opportunity provided to the teams to show their skills on the ground. In fact, during the play-offs no reserve days were kept and even the ground upkeep lacked seriousness as the playing area remained exposed to the rain gods and it was always a post damage redressal to flush out water from the ground.

India's match against New Zealand at Trent Bridge on Thursday was the fourth match of the tournament to be abandoned so far, and the third to be called off without a ball being bowled. This is a record of sorts when we saw that it had already surpassed the previous highest number of washed-out matches in a World Cup   two in 1992 and 2003. Frustrated fans and bemused onlookers who paid through their nose to watch the match were left high and dry. Prior to this year's World Cup in England, just two matches in the World Cup tournament's history had been abandoned before play began. One of them was witnessed in 2015 when Australia and Bangladesh could not make the field in Brisbane, while the other was way back in 1979.

ICC must realise that a common request was made especially in light of Wimbledon adding a retractable roof to Court One in addition to the one over Centre Court in time for this year's Championships. ICC earns a huge amount of money through these tournaments but why are they not putting a retractable roof over a cricket ground? Yes, there is difference between the size of a cricket ground and a tennis court and the cost will be humungous as it will have to do it all across the cricketing centres in the world, but if not a retractable or convertible roof then why not a mechanism which covers the entire playing area and just not the 'square' which is hardly 30 metres from the 22-yard pitch or wicket?

Also, reserve days were used the last time England hosted the World Cup Cricket tournament in the year 1999, but there are none during the group stage this time round, only for the semi-finals and final. What guarantee is there that there are no rains on two consecutive days during semi-finals and final which may lead to a washout of matches and the entire tournament will be divided on just point sharing basis?