MELBOURNE, Oct 28: The crucial T20 World Cup clash between old rivals Australia and England was on Friday called off without a ball being bowled due to intermittent rain, making the race to semi-finals tougher for the two top teams.
After the Afghanistan-Ireland game in the afternoon was washed out at the MCG, it was a double whammy for the crowd as weather played spoilsport again.
Only two teams each from the two groups qualify for the semi-finals. After two rained out games on Friday, England found themselves in the number two spot after sharing a point with Australia.
Title favourites England had suffered a shock loss to Ireland in Super 12s.
Australia too have three points from as many games after losing their tournament opener to New Zealand. They are fourth in the group with the worst run rate among four teams locked on three points. New Zealand lead the group and Ireland are second.
Rain has affected most of the games at the MCG barring the Indo-Pak blockbuster played on Sunday.
“That’s the wettest I’ve ever seen in this stadium. The run-ups were a real issue and around the inner circle, it was very wet. It’s more about players’ safety,” said Australia skipper Aaron Finch.
“We saw one of the Zimbabweans go down the other day. If you are trying to run there, it’s going to be a real issue. Everyone was ready to play, there was a great turn-out, disappointing not to get on.
“The amount of rain that Melbourne has had has been amazing.” When asked about Matthew Wade, who was down with COVID-19, he added: “ “He was going to play tonight. He had few symptoms yesterday but he was good to go.” England skipper Jos Buttler too expressed disappointment after the second no show of the day.
“It was supposed to be a massive occasion, full house here against Australia, biggest game of your career, very disappointed not to be able to play tonight. But full focus on our next match and keep our tournament alive. We’ve been playing some good cricket leading into the tournament.
“Really disappointing the other night specially when we had majority of things in our favour. We don’t become a bad team overnight. We are full of match-winners. Looking forward to the rest of the tournament,” said Buttler referring to the loss to Ireland.
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Earlier, Afghanistan’s match against Ireland in the T20 World Cup was also abandoned without a ball being bowled due to incessant rain at the MCG.
Persistent showers fell across the MCG for much of the day as ground staff kept the covers on and the toss could not be held as the pitch remained under wraps.
Play was eventually called off just after 4:30 pm local time, with both Afghanistan and Ireland receiving one-point apiece to stay in contention for a semi-final berth.
The result pushed Ireland to second spot behind New Zealand on net run-rate as both teams have three points apiece with Ireland playing one match extra in Group 1 standings.
“We’d played good cricket and were looking forward to this. Can’t do much about the weather,” a disappointed Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie said.
Ireland next face Australia at Brisbane on Monday.
“It’ll be like a different country up in Brisbane. We want to push the champions.” For Afghanistan, who had lost to England in their Super 12 opener, this was their second successive washout as their previous match against New Zealand, at same venue too was abandoned without a ball.
Afghanistan remain sixth with two Super 12 matches remaining.
Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi said most of the players missed out playing on this fantastic ground.
“Most of the players are disappointed, not having played on such a fantastic ground. Rashid and I have played but others haven’t but weather is not in our control. So, we have to accept it.” Afghanistan will be up against Sri Lanka on Tuesday at Brisbane.
“We made a plan to put runs on the board to allow our spinners to defend it. In the first game, we saw our mistakes and wanted to learn it. We watched Zimbabwe-Pakistan, they played well and fought till the last ball. All teams are trying their best.”
Now all eyes are on the second match of the day slated here between Ashes rivals Australia and England, which is a virtual knockout for both the teams. (PTI)
