The first abandonment of this T20 World Cup took place between two countries who are no strangers to wetlands. But Scotland are likely to feel more aggrieved than England at the end of this Group B tie as they played much of the game between torrential downpours, which eventually fell apart.
It is also a day full of hope. A small lively crowd prepared for the start of the match at 10.30am, including children from Jofra Archer’s alma mater, the Christ Church Foundation. Sir Garfield Sobers watched the game from a wicker chair atop the Worrell, Wicks and Walcott Stand, while in stark contrast to his regal demeanor, visiting fans Frolic in the pool at the edge of the border.
Sadly, between warm but devastating showers, only 10 overs were played, with George Munsey (41) and Michael Jones (45) Scotland raced to 90 without a loss, while England stumbled slightly.
Jos Buttler’s side will need 109 runs in 10 overs to win if the side returns to bat; a challenging but not impossible target considering their line-up of power batsmen.
In fact, both teams started the game with a point each, although England’s performance made it feel less positive.
“I thought we were a little sloppy on the pitch and a little bit nervous at the start of the game,” their head coach Matthew Mott said, before insisting that with 10 wickets in hand the ball was getting wet in the wet conditions Getting slippery, they’ll still enjoy the chase.
England will need to be sharper against Australia on Saturday than they were here. After a delayed start to play (partly due to water leaking into the pitch from the cover), several errors on the pitch and Mark Wood’s no-ball wicket allowed Scotland to chase down 51 runs without conceding a single wicket from the initial session. .
Not that Scotland had little value here, Jones was the main attacker at this stage, scoring 32 off 23 balls and scoring 15 off Chris Jordan’s sixth over. This included a stunning six from the Durham right-hander, which sailed towards the roof of the Greenidge and Haynes Stand and shattered a solar panel.
After more than two hours of waiting, the game finally restarted at 2:10 pm local time, with the game structure having been readjusted to 10 overs per side and England’s target revised. Scotland’s innings first needed to be completed with two England bowlers behind, Wood and Archer – who had plenty of pace but was wicketless in his first World Cup match since 2019 – this time when they have allocated their allocation.
Newsletter Promotion Post
This time it was Muncy who stepped up, the left-hander having earlier profited from Wood’s offside, setting up Adil Rashid for 18 in the eighth over. Rasheed, with a bar of soap in hand, did manage to get back into the game in the final frame, until Jones struggled to sweep the final frame to four.
But as Scotland warmed up a bit in the outfield during the change of innings, the third and final flood came back with horrendous cover and pushed the game past the 2.52pm cut-off point.
“We certainly gave ourselves a chance,” said Richie Bellington, whose Scotland side face Namibia here on Thursday.
