The worst thing about the rain ruining a match is not the disappointment of the players but of the fans. Eden Gardens was jam packed on Sunday and the sense of despair amongst the people was all too obvious. Everywhere you looked were faces of disbelief that the match might actually be abandoned.

Every player on both teams would have preferred to play, even if it was a crazy five overs per side. Perhaps the Royals might have enjoyed taking a point away from their visit to KKR because it did put them back at the top of the table, but I’m still sure they would rather have played.

But one side of the field was completely waterlogged and it was just impossible to have played anything meaningful in those conditions. As I said last week when we lost on the Duckworth-Lewis method, the sooner we can build a roof over Eden Gardens the better it will be for all of us (no, I’m not being serious — but it’s a nice thought!).

It was great to catch up with my old mate Paddy Upton, who once again is doing a great job with Rajasthan. They never seem to start amongst the favourites but they are always competitive and they seem to find ways to win games when others might falter. Having stumbled within touching distance of the play-offs last year, it’s quite obvious how determined they are to be there in 2015.

Paddy is my coach in the Big Bash League, at the Sydney Thunder, where we also just failed to reach the semi-finals having looked on course for much of the league stage. We were reminiscing about how we managed to lose the big derby match against the Sydney Sixers (coached by KKR’s Trevor Bayliss) when they needed 53 off the final 18 balls — and got them! A stark reminder that anything is possible in this format — don’t take anything for granted.

Now that I’m officially a coach (at KKR but not at the Sixers where I’m still a player for another year) Paddy took the opportunity to do a bit of planning for the next BBL. We identified two or three players we’d like to bid for at auction, including Shane Watson.

We are entering a very busy period now, starting with the match against Chennai on Tuesday, with plenty of travel and lots of training and strategising in between matches.

The next week or so will go a long way in deciding whether we take the straightforward route into the knockouts or the complicated one. We did it the hard way last year so we’ve suggested to the players that the easier route would be better this year!

No time for golf for the next ten days or so. At least I go into the mid-tournament recess unbeaten.

— Gameplan/Hawkeye