Key events
Match abandoned
The umpires have given up the ghost, which means both teams will take a point apiece. It could have been worse for England: their DLS target was 109 from 10 overs.
Scotland will be back at the Kensington Oval on Thursday for what is a very big game against Namibia.
England face Australia here on Saturday. A defeat in that game wouldn’t be terminal, but it would leave England in quite the predicament.
Scotland are hanging around the boundary, desperate to get back on. They haven’t yet put their shades on like Australia at the Oval in 2005. It’s still pelting down, though, and I’d say there’s almost no chance of further play.
Netherlands v Nepal latest
There is play in the other match. Netherlands are treading carefully in their run-chase: they’ve reached 50 for 2 after 9.3 overs, needing another 57 runs to beat Nepal.
“Hi from New York, where I’m just starting to follow cricket,” writes Ron Stack. “I’m finding the OBOs very helpful. But I’m writing mainly to say that the earlier headline ‘England v Scotland Cricket Delayed by Rain’ may be the most British sentence I’ve ever read.”
Wait until Orkney v Shetland at the 2030 World Cup.
It wasn’t just a precaution – it’s raining heavily again and the prospect are bleak. England may be about to dodge a bullet.
The covers are back on, though it may just be a precaution. I don’t know because the UK TV coverage currently consists of an advert for Smug Blended Oat & Dairy Milk.
My word, what a performance from Scotland’s openers. Michael Jones did most of the work before the rain break; after it, George Munsey smashed 23 from 12 balls.
“What is going on with this DLS?” says Felix Wood. “Scotland get 90 in 10 overs, six of which are a Powerplay, and the target becomes 109 with only two Powerplay overs? That seems a bit disadvantageous for England to me.”
I assume the fact they hadn’t lost a wicket when rain stopped play was a factor, though it’s far too complicated for my brain.
10th over: Scotland 90-0 (Munsey 41, Jones 45) A very good last over from Rashid, full of changes in pace and line. He concedes only four singles from the first five balls, but then Jones pings a slog-sweep for four to end the innings on a high note. England need 109 from 10 overs to win.
9th over: Scotland 82-0 (Munsey 39, Jones 39) Munsey dumps an attempted yorker from Jordan over backward square leg for six. Jordan does really well, though, to concede only four from the other five deliveries. There was a run-out referral off the last ball when Archer hit the stumps direct from long on. Jones’ bat got stuck but his feet were over the line.
It’s raining again, though play continues for now. Rashid will bowl the last over.
If Scotland get 90, England’s target will be 109 in 10 overs. Yikes. Chris Jordan is going to bowl the ninth over.
8th over: Scotland 72-0 (Munsey 30, Jones 39) Wonderful batting from George Munsey! He has just reverse slog-swept Rashid for four and six, the latter an 84-metre beast.
Rashid’s first over goes for 18. Is something brilliant happening?
7.3 overs: Scotland 61-0 (Munsey 19, Jones 39) Michael Jones spanks Rashid’s first ball for a flat straight six, then England review unsuccessfully for caught behind against Munsey. He didn’t connect properly with an attempted sweep, and the ball looped into the gloves of Buttler.
Rashid thought there might have been a touch on the way through; there wasn’t. It’s a dot ball though, and they are precious now.
7th over: Scotland 54-0 (Munsey 19, Jones 32) Moeen does very well to concede only three from the last four balls, and one of those came from a top-edged sweep by Munsey.
Now it’s time for Adil Rashid.
The players are back on the field. And England, against all expectations, are in a game. Scotland will resume on 51 for 0 after 6.2 overs, with Moeen Ali to complete the seventh over.
Play to resume at 7.10pm BST (2.10pm local)!
It’ll be 10 overs a side, with England chasing an adjusted target. Each bowler will be allowed a maximum of two overs, which means Archer and Wood have finished their spells. Moeen Ali will complete the seventh over, then you’d imagine Adil Rashid (two) and Chris Jordan (one) will bowl the last three.
If Rashid can’t grip the ball, the only other seam option is Harry Brook. I don’t think so.
Inspection at 6.50pm (1.50pm local time) It’s looking promising, folks.
In the other game, Nepal are 106 for seven with eight balls of their innings remaining. Netherlands’ young left-arm spinner Tim Pringle took 3 for 20 in his four overs.
At the moment Netherlands are outclassing Nepal in their opening fixture but the support for @CricketNep at the stadium is 🔥🔥, so good to watch 👏. #NEDvNEP #T20WorldCup
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) June 4, 2024
“In lieu of an actual win for Scotland, we can just pretend, right?” decides Simon McMahon. “Rishi Sunak, can you hear me? We have beaten England in cricket! Lord Nelson, Jos Buttler, Winston Churchill, Jude Bellingham, Keir Starmer, Luke Littler, your boys took a hell of a beating, a hell of a beating.”
Loooooooooke Litttttttttttttler would sound great in Bjørge Lillelien’s voice.
“Looks like a DLS runchase for England,” writes Rick Foot. “The suggestion is 77 off 6 overs, or 66 off 5, both of which look very tough; but credit to Scotland for an excellent start, and if Salt gets off to a flyer as is his wont then the English top six might make short work of it.”
You’d still fancy England, but there’s not much margin for error if that DLS calculation is correct. And Scotland’s strength is their bowling.
“I was very lucky to see a lot of cricket at the Oval in the 70s and 80s when the cream of West Indian fast bowlers all played on the county circuit,” says Ian Burch. “Without doubt the most fearsome bowler of the lot was Sylvester Clarke. In the international wilderness, he used his time to clatter the helmets and ribs of batsmen up and down the country.
“He always seemed to ramp up his pace whenever he bowled to fellow West Indians just to give them a reminder of what he could do. He was rapid and mean, no wonder every batsman wanted to get down the other end and face Robin Jackman instead. How tailenders ever found the courage to walk out and face him I’ll never know. Absolutely terrifying.”
This obituary, written after his shocking death at the age of 44, gives a flavour of what he was like to face.
West Indies have named their squad for the Test series in England this summer. There are some serious fast bowlers on the list.
A washout wouldn’t be the end of the world for either team. But were England to then lose against Australia on Saturday, they could be another washout (never mind another defeat) from elimination.
We* think the cut-off for a five-over runchase is 2.48pm local time, 7.48pm BST. Henry Moeran of Test Match Special thinks England’s target would be 66. This may all be academic, as apparently it’s still hooning down.
* I say ‘we’; Ali Martin did 99.94 per cent of the work.
Nepal have reached 53 for 4 after 10 overs against the Netherlands. It sounds like the pitch is a bit awkward, and Nepal will be looking to their captain Rohit Paudel (15 not out) to get them to a competitive total.
No news is bad news
It’s pelting down now, so it could be a while before play resumes. England are looking at a DLS runchase.
Netherlands v Nepal latest
“Many more Nepalis in Dallas than Dutch as Netherlands bowl first,” writes Romeo. “Nepal are 17 for 2 after 3.2 overs. “The Nepal side is very young, several teenagers, captain just 21, but they have a veteran of their last (only previous) World Cup appearance in 2014 in Sompal Kami. The pitch is seaming and turning.”
I do hope Andrew Leonard is on commentary; he spoke so well about Nepal on Athers’ and Nasser’s World Cup preview podcast.
The covers are back on. Tremendous.
The DJ is playing I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash, which may give some of you a broken- mirror, black-cat, Friday-the- thirteenth kind of feeling.
The covers are off The rain has blown through pretty quickly, so the players should be back on in the next 5-10 minutes.
A Scotland liveblog isn’t a Scotland liveblog until we’ve heard from Simon McMahon, and here he is.
I was just thinking 150 myself, Rob. If we do, permission to sing boisterously? Damn you, hope.
They’ve got a chance here. There are obvious parallels with Ireland’s win over England at the last World Cup.
“Evening all,” writes Mark Dixon. “Enjoying watching England Scotland in Barbados from Zimbabwe. Re: The Barbadian XI – one of the problems of having so many great players is not having enough real estate around the ground for all the deserving names. I notice that in Barbados they are putting two names on each stand.”
It helps that so many of the greats had famous partnerships. Greenidge and Haynes; the three Ws; Hall and Griffith. By contrast, the Nurse and Garner Stand would look a bit weird.
Rain stops play
6.2 overs: Scotland 51-0 (Munsey 18, Jones 30) And they’re off. The break has come at a good time for England, whose start hasn’t been the most auspicious. There were a couple of misfields in the covers – not shockers, but still misfields – and a wicket off a no-ball.
6th over: Scotland 49-0 (Munsey 17, Jones 29) Chris Jordan’s second ball is pulled monstrously for six by Michael Jones, onto the solar-panelled roof and out of the ground. Welcome home. That shot evoked one of John Davison’s sixes when he went ballistic against New Zealand in 2003.
Jones is playing superbly here. He makes it 14 from three balls with successive boundaries through the covers and midwicket. That completes a terrific Powerplay for Scotland.
“Netherlands v Nepal (clash of my cousins) is delayed too but should start at 5pm UK time,” writes Romeo. “One surprise (to me) is that Sagar Dhakal has been selected for Nepal rather than the more experienced SLA Lalit Rajbanshi.”
5th over: Scotland 34-0 (Munsey 17, Jones 13) Wood has an LBW appeal against Munsey turned down. It was a sharp delivery, just over 94mph, but it was missing leg.
Oh dear, Wood has taken a wicket off a no-ball. Munsey slogged the ball miles in the air and was taken by Buttler, running back towards the boundary, but England soon heard the siren of doom.
Munsey misses the resulting free hit, with the ball keeping very low. If Scotland get 140 here…
4th over: Scotland 28-0 (Munsey 14, Jones 13) A tighter second over from Archer, both in line and runs conceded. Jones is beaten by a good off-cutter and hit on the glove (I think) by a beautiful bouncer.
