In a cruel twist of fate, Indian fans who had been lamenting the British weather and frequent showers in England during the World Cup were left praying for rain during India’s semi-final clash against New Zealand in Manchester on Wednesday.

This turnaround was caused by the stunning collapse of the Indian top order as in-form openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul and captain Virat Kohli were sent back to the pavillion by New Zealand seamers within the first four overs. The score on the board: 5 runs. Dinesh Karthik was the next to fall and Rishabh Pant, who was building a steady little partnership with Hardik Pandya, was dismissed after that.

Chasing a target of 240 runs, the Indian team will now need a herculean effort from the rest of the batsmen in conditions that favour swing bowling. Not feeling too confident in the abilities of the Indian middle order, which has been in a bit of a rut, the fans turned towards the weather god, hoping that rain would save the day instead.

#INDvsNZ #ICCWorldCup2019#ICCWC2019Seeing India 5-3 Me to the rain: pic.twitter.com/JsKLuCFpuu

— Samar Gularia (@Samarsh23) July 10, 2019

#INDvsNZ #NZvIND #rain #cwc #indians Waiting for rains to come back pic.twitter.com/eQebPAvduC

— Ritin Gulati (@Ar_Ritin_Gulati) July 10, 2019

#CWC19 #INDvsNZ Pray for rain now. pic.twitter.com/xCtr7cJQwh

— Shan (@EDPShan) July 10, 2019

This is a Prayer for rain. #INDvsNZ pic.twitter.com/CqQOmYGlPL

— Shahab Jafri (@ShahabJafri) July 10, 2019

Now is the time!! Please start praying for rain ya'll#INDvsNZ pic.twitter.com/5ZtYuQ63hy

— Parikshit (@RJParikshit) July 10, 2019

Let's pray for Rain!#INDvsNZ#CWC19#rain

— Jayesh Mall (@jayeshmall) July 10, 2019

I wish rain may stop the play, so India will get qualified for the finals! 😢#3down#INDvsNZ

— Swapnil Jagtap 🇮🇳 (@swapnil_jagtap_) July 10, 2019

Indians after Rohit and Kohli got out #INDvsNZ #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/mvzacZ3W7P

— Mohan AK (@Mohan_BLR_AK) July 10, 2019

Now only Heavy rain can save us....God divert mumbai rains to Manchestar please.Miracle save india nowonwards#INDvsNZ ,#CWC19 #rain

— mitul shah (@MitulSShah) July 10, 2019

The fans were hoping that in case the match cannot be completed on Wednesday as well, then the team with the better position in the group stage points table goes through to the final. Then according to the rule book, India would have qualified for the final on the basis of more points (15) than New Zealand (11) in the league stage.

But even that would not help now as India has already faced over 20 overs and in case it rains, the Duckworth-Lewis Stern method would come into play. The weather forecast for the next few hours also shows that rain is unlikely, with the British Met Department putting the chances of rain at less than 10 per cent.