Will the Manuka Oval pitch beat the rain to be ready for T20Is between Australia and England?

Now curator Tom Fahey just needs to add the finishing touches over the next two days.

Then it's fingers crossed and we pray to the cricket gods the rain stays away for the Australia-England Twenty20 International at Manuka on Wednesday night.

It's the first of two games between the two teams at Manuka, with the second on Friday.

Both sides were preparing for the T20 World Cup, which will be held in Australia - starting next Sunday with the final at the MCG on November 13.

Canberra won't host any World Cup games.

A fantastic feat of planning using the long-term weather forecast meant it won't be the pitch that puts a dampener on the start of Cricket ACT's centenary celebrations.

That will all be down to Mother Nature and whether she decided to put the downpours on hold long enough for the Aussies to take on the Poms.

Cricket ACT's opening weekend has already been washed out, along with Canberra Racing's Tony Campbell Memorial Cup Day on Friday.

"It's hard. We've prepared it. We were pretty much planning for this rain so we wanted to get it hard by Wednesday [last week]," Fahey said.

"It's hard, we just need Monday and Tuesday now to do the finishing touches and we'll be good to go.

"We've put the time in and we're as ready as we can be.

"You can't fight Mother Nature, but we've taken every precaution that we can."

There shouldn't be too much rain on Monday and Tuesday, with forecasts suggesting the next downpour might hold off until Thursday. Touch wood.

The Manuka pitch was renowned for being a batter's paradise.

"All we can ask for is for that hard, bouncy and fast [pitch]," Fahey said.

"With the weather around it might be a little bit on the slower side, but that's cricket at this time of year.

"We just haven't had the sun so we've just got to work with what we've got."

Fahey's been planning for weeks to get the pitch ready for the two T20Is at Manuka this week.

But recently there's been a lot of watching it rain - and dashing out to change the hessian covers under the main ones to prevent sweating from softening the deck.

Fahey said the oval itself had excellent drainage and could handle everything that's been thrown at it.

MORE CANBERRA SPORT

"[We looked at] long-range forecasts and we're planning weeks ahead," he said.

"This was planned for. We've taken every precaution we can. We back our covers and we just take our windows.

"We're in damage control really. We just peel them back when it stops and we change our hessians so it stays dry.

"We're in each other's pockets a bit, but the boys are keen. We're keen for the start of the cricket season.

"It's obviously our centenary year as well so there's a big celebration for that and it would be fantastic if we can get two great games of cricket to start off the season."

TWENTY20 INTERNATIONALS

Wednesday: Australia v England at Manuka Oval, 7.10pm.

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: