BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) — England’s T20 World Cup cricket opener against Scotland was abandoned Tuesday because of rain, leaving the Scots possibly the more disappointed of the two teams.
Defending champion England went into their first-ever Twenty20 international against Scotland as the heavy favourite but Scottish chances increased significantly after England were set a tough revised target of 109 in 10 overs.
Rain prevented any further play in the Group B game with no result and a point for each team.
Also Tuesday, Netherlands got off to a winning start with a six-wicket victory over Nepal in Group D at Grand Prairie, Texas.
Rain had already twice interrupted the T20 game before Scotland openers George Munsey and Michael Jones made a spirited 90-0 in a revised 10 overs each team. England’s target was then recalculated to 109 under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method — which aims to give a fair assessment of what teams would otherwise have scored — before rain came down hard during the innings break and denied further play.
That would have been a challenge even for England’s ferocious batting, whose bowlers had struggled to separate the Scottish pair.
“There’s no easy games at all, but we were confident,” England captain Jos Buttler said. “The disappointment is for everyone, isn’t it, both sides and all the crowd here.”
Scotland captain Richie Berrington was frustrated for not getting a chance to challenge England batters on a tricky wicket.
“Certainly frustrated that we couldn’t get a full game in,” Berrington said. “It would have been interesting to see how the weather affects the pitch … I think if we’d bowled well, we certainly had an opportunity there.”
Rain had kept the players off the field first for nearly an hour after Scotland won the toss and elected to bat. Jones (45 not out) and Munsey (41 not out) negotiated the pace threat of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer in the power play before rain returned in the 7th over with Scotland reaching 51-0.
Munsey got a lucky escape on 16 before the second rain interruption when Buttler took a well judged running catch at third man only to see Mark Wood over-stepping the crease. Jones counterattacked against Chris Jordan during the power play and one of his sixes against the fast bowler broke the solar panel installed at the roof of the stands.
On resumption, Munsey and Jones hit another 39 runs off the remaining 22 balls as spinner Adil Rashid gave away 26 off the two overs.
Buttler had to give Rashid two overs after the second interruption with his key bowlers Wood and Archer already consuming their quota of two overs each in the power play.
“When we went back out … I thought we scrapped hard and we were confident of chasing that score down,″ Buttler said.
Barbados-born Archer made his T20 World Cup debut after returning from injury and had showed glimpses of his full fitness during England’s recent 2-0 series victory against Pakistan. He bowled two overs for 12 runs, but both Scottish openers batted with confidence against him under overcast conditions.
DUTCH WIN
Netherlands beat Nepal with eight balls remaining.
The Dutch, who won the toss and chose to bowl first, dismissed Nepal for 106 in 19.2 overs with their captain Rohit Paudel top-scoring with a 37-ball 35.
Tim Pringle (3-20 in four overs) and Logan van Beek (3-18 in 3.2 overs) did the damage as Nepal lost wickets at regular intervals on a surface suited for fast bowlers.
Dutch opener Max O’Dowd then led the successful chase, hitting 54 not out in 48 balls as his team finished on 109-4 in 18.4 overs.
