Australia’s cricketers have been given a T20 World Cup boost before even bowling or facing a ball after England’s opening match with Scotland was rained off in Barbados after ten overs play.

Both teams take a point from the match, leaving holders England with little margin of error in their remaining group games. 

They will also be undercooked when they face Australia in Bridgetown on Saturday (Sunday 5am AEST) after also having two of their four warm-up matches against Pakistan washed off.

England might, however, feel relieved as they were facing a tricky chase in the Caribbean gloom after Scotland smashed 0-90 off ten overs. 

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With the rain having interrupted play 6.2 overs into Scotland’s innings England’s revised target under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) Method was 109 in their ten overs – not easy on a difficult pitch even for their battery of hitters.

“It’s disappointment for everyone,” said England captain Jos Buttler. “There were a couple of balls here and there we’d want to tighten up on, but we scrapped hard and we were confident of chasing that score down.”

“If we had bowled and fielded well, we had an opportunity there,” said Scotland skipper Richie Berrington. 

A shower shortly before the scheduled start delayed play half-an-hour, which was put back a further 25 minutes due to a damp patch on a length. 

When they finally began England opened with rapid pace from both ends, unleashing Mark Wood and  Bridgetown-born Jofra Archer. 

Scotland were not cowed. English-born batters Michael Jones and George Munsey scored at a run-a-ball off the fast men, and then cashed in against another Bajan, Chris Jordan. His over went for 15 including a six from Jones that cracked a solar panel on the Greenidge & Haynes Stand roof on its way out of the ground and into the car park. 

At 0-51 off 6.2 overs the showers returned, some of them heavy. It was more than two hours before play resumed. Off their remaining 22 balls the Scots scored 39 with star spinner Adil Rashid going for 26 off his 12. Jones finished with 45 off 30, Munsey 41 off 31.

The scene was set for a gripping chase, but the rain returned, for good.

Tuesday’s other match was also rain-affected, but only to the extent that the start was delayed by 30 minutes. Once play got underway in Dallas Nepal were dismissed for 106 by the Netherlands four balls shy of their 20 overs. 

Only captain Rohit Paudel (35) troubled the Dutch bowlers for whom Logan van Beek took 3-18 and Tim Pringle took 3-20. Paul van Meekeren (2-19) and Bas de Leede (2-22) shared the other wickets.

The Dutch made hard work of the chase but eventually won by six wickets, Max O’Dowd steering them home with eight balls remaining.