ENG VS PAK - 1st ODI, Pakistan tour of England, 2019

Match called off. Yea, that's as long everybody was willing to wait for. Play had to begin in lesser than 30 minutes to squeeze in a 20-over contest, but no, they've realized there's no point hanging around for that. Apparently, it's the outfield, the muggy outfield that has played spoilsport despite the rains having stopped some time ago. So in the 19 overs, the most fun bit was Jofra Archer's starting spell - pace, seam and properly outfoxing the Pakistani batsmen. Plunkett too was pretty good at what he did. Anyways, for now, until we meet again at the Ageas Bowl, with hopefully a better forecast, ta ta!!

The umpires are in the midst of checking the outfield for potentially damp areas. It's the uncovered portions they seem to be having a problem with. The soppers are doing their job, with the skyline looking much, much clearer.

18:50 Local Time: We're ten minutes away from getting back out there. The covers are well and truly off. The sun's out too. The umpires are in the midst of checking the outfield for potentially damp areas.

18:20 Local Time, 22:50 IST: Now, now. Guess who's back here to ruin yet another inspection!?

18:13 Local Time, 22:43 IST: Another inspection in around 20 minutes, with a restart at 7pm local. Unless of course, a shower.

18:02 Local Time, 22:32 IST: It's inspection time! The umpires are out there and the good thing, irrespective of however bad the outfield is, is that isn't raining. We should be on soon .. and remember, there's more than an hour left to squeeze in a 20-over contest.

There's an inspection scheduled for 6pm UKT | 10:30pm IST.

17:06 Local Time: News: It has stopped raining. But the cleaning up operations would take some time. We've lost around five overs already since the last rain break, and assuming that the clean up takes another twenty minutes tr so, we could end up losing a total of eight overs before the inspection. Again, all this iff ..

16:44 Local Time, 21:14 IST: There's really nothing new to add guys. The drizzle. The covers. The break. More drizzle. More covers. More break.

Kartik: Rain is also warming up for the World Cup

16:25 Local Time: Yea, it's that English day. Another drizzle, another break, and another one that promises to NOT last long. Surely the Pakistanis aren't enjoying this stop-start.

Adil Rashid to Haris Sohail, no run, missed stumping. Sohail was down on an aimless slog, missing it big time .. but the ball kicks up and Buttler's gloves are just not up there in time. In fact to make it worse, he tries whipping the bails off his right glove without the ball in it

Adil Rashid to Imam-ul-Haq, 1 run, skidding through quicker, which means Imam has to rock behind as he punches it down to long-on

Adil Rashid to Imam-ul-Haq, no run, big stride, plonking forward in some head-on-ball defence

Adil Rashid to Haris Sohail, 1 run, walks into a cow corner flick, all along the ground

Adil Rashid to Haris Sohail, no run, into the legs, Sohail misses his nudge

He has a slip.

Adil Rashid to Imam-ul-Haq, 1 run, low loopy full toss, flicked, leaning into it as he does, long-on

Adil Rashid, right-arm leg break, comes into the attack

Stokes to Imam-ul-Haq, 1 run, a hop beside, sticking out an opened up bat face to guide it down to third man

Stokes to Imam-ul-Haq, FOUR, oh smashed. Stokes gets too predictable - gets too short - and Imam's not letting this one go by, swivelling, swatting from in front of his face as he crunches it through an empty deep square leg