D/L EQUATION TO AFFECT NRR?

I was on the Cricinfo home page when my friend asked me to check what is the weather expected to play like at St. Lucia when India takes on Sri Lanka in the penultimate Super Eight fixture today.

I went to the 'Live Scorecard' page of the match and checked the weather. It read 'Mostly Cloudy' at 29 degrees Celcius. Is that supposed to indicate that there are fair chances of rain during the day when two matches are to be played?

St. Lucia has been one of the 'wetter' Carribbean islands... and if any of the two matches today were to be rained out, it would be the end of the road for India's campaign. Even if the matches are not rained out, but affected by rain, then the lovely couple called Duckworth - Lewis comes into the picture.

Now, I have not idea whatsoever as to what happens at the time of Net Run Rate calculations if the results are based on D/L calculations. I welcome anyone who knows about this to enlighten me.

I just hope that the D/L angle, if it does come into play, does not jeopardise India's slim chances of qualifying for the semi-finals. There is certain optimism in Indian fans about today's match. The reasons are manifold.

First, a 20-run win does not sound too much of a task to achieve. It is not something that requires extraordinary effort. Secondly, most Indian fans do not consider Sri Lanka as a tough opponent (I don't know why!) and the fact that Sri Lanka themselves are struggling a bit helps the optimism in India. Lastly, the fact that Pakistan got through from a seemingly impossible situation yesterday has created some more flutters of hope.

In about 4 and a half hours from now, the situation will be clear. Or atleast as clear as it can be! We will still have to wait for the result of WI - Aus match. Keeping the fingers crossed!