England Given Early Scare By Scotland Before Rain Curtails T20 World Cup Opener | T20 WC 2024 | Latest Cricket News

England were given an early scare by Scotland in their T20 World Cup opener in Barbados before the clash was eventually curtailed by rain.

Scotland put up a fight in a stop-start encounter

The match was first delayed after the toss had taken place, and the rain came down again after the Scotland opening pair of George Munsey and Michael Jones had batted for 6.2 overs and scored 51 runs. England’s only chance of the innings came when Munsey hit a ball from Mark Wood high in the air, Jos Buttler safely pouching the grab. However, replays showed Wood had overstepped.

The match was further delayed for two hours before the players were able to get back on the field, and the game was reduced to a 10-over bash per side. In the 22 balls Scotland had left in their innings when play resumed, they whacked 39 runs, including taking 18 runs off an over from Adil Rashid, to reach 90-0. England’s target was bumped up to 109 by DLS.

However, at the end of Scotland’s innings the rain returned, and the match was again delayed, and England were unable to start their chase. With only 24 minutes of leeway remaining for the match to get back underway, play was unable to resume, and the match was abandoned.

What does the result mean for Group B?

The no result means that each team will be awarded a point. In terms of how this will affect England’s chances of qualifying for the Super Eights, while not as damaging as a loss, there could still be consequences. By being unable to collect two points against a side they were expected to beat it makes it more important that they beat the other Associate teams in their group, Oman and Namibia.

For Scotland, while having a potentially winning position taken away from them is tough to swallow, gaining a point from the fixture puts them in prime position to capitalise on any further slip up from England or Australia in the group. The result also heightens the jeopardy of further fixtures in the group being rained off.

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