Rain threatens first ODI between Proteas and Windies in East London

In East London

The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality's generally unpredictable weather took a turn for the wet ahead of Thursday's first ODI between South Africa and the West Indies.

Rain was predicted to fall on Wednesday and Thursday, but it stayed away for the bulk of Wednesday to allow teams to practice unhindered.

There was a small spit of rain after 17:00 on Wednesday that forced the ground staff to cover the pitch just after the West Indies finished their training session.

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From there, it rained sporadically in certain parts of East London, with rain showers in Cambridge and Vincent not affecting the neighbouring suburbs of Highgate and Summerpride.

The rain did indeed settle on Thursday morning, with low, grey clouds blanketing Mdantsane, with bursts of rain and wind making walking outside a difficult task.

The rain, which started to fall overnight, also seemed to come in fits and bursts, with quiet spells of calm followed by sharp, windy showers.

Buffalo Park has hosted one Test, 24 ODIs and three T20s since 1992 and only two ODIs have been abandoned due to the weather.

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Those two games were between South Africa and Zimbabwe in September 2006 and against Bangladesh in November 2008 where overnight rain forced the abandonment of those fixtures.

Two other ODIs between the hosts and Pakistan in 1993 and England in 2005 were also picked on by the weather, but it cleared enough for play to take place.

Earlier this year, a T20 game between the South African women's team and their Indian counterparts was also washed out with only two balls bowled.

Should the weather clear, the first