HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala on Tuesday. (Source: X)
South Africa are getting ready to take on the Netherlands in their third match of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala on Tuesday. Although rain affected most of the warm-up matches in the build-up to the World Cup 2023, the weather has been kind for the spectators and fans so far in the tournament.
However, rain and strong winds affected the match between Australia and Sri Lanka in the northern city of Lucknow on Monday. Dharamsala is situated further north to Lucknow and more rain in predicted for match No. 15 of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 on Tuesday.
According to the MET department, there is 55 per cent chance of rain when the match between South Africa and the Netherlands is scheduled to begin. The temperature in the hills has dropped down significantly and there will be a high of about 17 degrees Celsius on Tuesday afternoon.
There is expected to be about 79 per cent cloud cover on Tuesday with 8.2 mm of rain predicted on the day as well. By the time the match ends at night, the temperature is expected to drop down to about 12 degrees.
Check Dharamsala weather for South Africa vs Netherlands ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Match HERE…
Another cause of concern with the wet weather around Dharamsala is going to be the state of the outfield at the HPCA Stadium. The outfield at the venue has come in for criticism from the teams with Afghanistan’s Mujeeb ur Rahman avoiding a major mishap in their match against Bangladesh earlier this month.
South African skipper Temba Bavuma said that his team will be careful while fielding at Dharamsala. “I think the field is a bit patchy. We did have a fielding practice last night and to be honest it didn’t play as bad as it really looked – but I guess we’ll see how it goes within the game. We have spoken about you know trying to be a bit more cautious. Maybe changing your diving technique, I don’t know how easy that is to do when you in the heat of the moment I guess guys will just have to I guess just pay a bit more attention to that – But yeah, like I said when we fielded yesterday it wasn’t all too bad. But we’ll really get to see when we’re playing in the game tomorrow,” Bavuma said on the eve of the match on Monday.