London: Jofra Archer received his England Test cap but was still to make his debut as rain saw the first day of Wednesday’s second Ashes match against Australia abandoned without a ball bowled at a soaking wet Lord’s.
Chris Jordan, a Sussex team-mate, presented Archer with the cap in England’s pre-match huddle ahead of a revised toss at 3:00pm local time only for further rain to delay the start once again. With rain still lashing an increasingly gloomy ‘home of cricket’, umpires Aleem Dar and Chris Gaffaney finally abandoned play for the day after tea at 4:19 pm local time. Jordan may only have made eight Test appearances but he has been something of a ‘cricket brother’ for fellow Barbados-born county colleague Archer.When the match should have been getting underway at 11:00 am, the square and pitch remained fully covered.
Further rain then meant hopes of any play before lunch soon disappeared as well.Now officials will hope the weather relents sufficiently for the match to begin at the scheduled 1000 GMT start of Thursday’s second day. (AFP)
