7th ODI: Rain, cyclone alert may play spoilsport

Mumbai:

The chances of play between India and Australia in the seventh and final ODI look bleak due to persistent rains on Wednesday.

The umpires and match referee have inspected the ground and conditions, and they are nowhere near to encouraging.

However, the final decision will be taken at 5 pm IST.

The unrelenting rains have been lashing the city from the last night and converted the D Y Patil stadium, the venue of the match, into a water pool. There is also a cyclone alert that might play the killjoy. Cyclone Phyan has been formimg over Arabian Sea and is likely to hit India's western coast later on Wednesday.

The Indian morale has hit a low following successive losses at Mohali, Hyderabad and Guwahati against what is essentially a very inexperienced Australian bowling line-up. If the match gets called off, Australia will win the series with a 4-2 scoreline. Australia came back strongly from a 1-2 deficit and went on to win three consecutive matches to pocket the series.

The rains, which started just past noon on Tuesday, did not allow the Indian team to have their match-eve practice session while the Australian team managed to do theirs in the morning.

(With PTI inputs)