(CMC) – A match that promised much delivered little in the end when rain forced a no-result in the British derby between Scotland and defending champions England in their Group B match of the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup yesterday in Barbados.
Michael Jones was not out on 45 and fellow opener George Munsey was not out on 41 after they defied a delayed start and a lengthy weather interruption and carried the Scots to 90 without loss when the match was reduced to 10 overs-a-side.
Another downpour after the Scotland innings ended left umpires Asif Yacoob of Pakistan and Nitin Menon of India with no choice but to abandon the remaining play without England getting a chance to start their reply, and both teams walked away with one point.
It was the third T20I in the last five for England that was ruined by adverse weather, and England head coach Matthew Mott said it was out of their hands. “I think it’s incredibly frustrating for both teams,” he said. “We turned up, and it looked like a pretty good surface.
“I know it was tricky the other night, but it looked like it was going to present as a good surface, and it seemed a little bit inevitable, the way the squalls just kept coming in, and when that wind dropped, I think it was going to be hard to get back on.
“I credit the groundsmen, they tried their best – but it was incredibly frustrating. We’ve waited a long time to be able to put our best foot forward in this competition, and we didn’t get that opportunity today. It was really unfortunate.”
Both Jones and Munsey struck four fours and two sixes from 30 and 31 balls, respectively, and neither looked troubled on an easy-paced pitch.
Munsey was fortunate on 16 when he was caught at deep fine-leg off a no-ball from fast bowler Mark Wood in the fifth over.
The left-hander top-edged a hook at a short ball from the England tear-away, and England captain and wicketkeeper Jos Buttler ran back almost 30 yards towards the boundary to take the catch, only to see umpire Yacoob with an outstretched right arm to offer the batsman a reprieve.
They had carried Scotland to 51 without loss after 6.2 overs when rain stopped play for 2-1/4 hours, and when they returned, they entertained the crowd of close to 5 000 with an array of enterprising strokes without having to worry about Wood and Barbados-born fellow tearaway fast bowler Jofra Archer.
Jones said the Scots could take forward the confidence they gained from the strong start against the English in the remaining matches, which include a contest against double-crowned world champions Australia.
“George and I had a good partnership out there, and we knew the challenges we were going to face and the pace that England have through Mark Wood and Archer in particular,” he said. “So it was all about trying to combat that, but I think we take confidence from the start that we’ve had.
“Also match that with some frustrations knowing that if the game was going to be restricted, particularly to, I don’t know, five or six overs, or how many overs it was going to be restricted to, we had a really good chance of winning that game.
“I think possibly, if you asked us before the game, do you want a point from this game? We might well have taken it, but taking on England and being in that position, it’s actually really frustrating knowing that we had a really good chance to win the game. But the rain beat us, so there you go.”
Group B continues today when Australia starts their bid for a treble of world titles against Oman under the lights at Kensington Oval, where Scotland face Namibia tomorrow at 3pm and England and Australia clash two days later.
