England have still got their T20 World Cup destiny in their own hands despite a soggy end to their blue riband clash with Australia without a ball bowled.
Continuous heavy rain all day on Friday washed out both the Afghanistan v Ireland match and the game between the oldest of enemies as the La Niña weather system wreaked more havoc on a tournament threatening to descend into farce if many more games were to be abandoned.
The rain did relent for a couple of hours, allowing the umpires to carry out a couple of inspections of the sodden outfield and run ups, but just when hopes were raised of a five over thrash more rain arrived to end any chance of a contest.
With both England and Australia already losing a match a piece, this game was set to be a pressure fuelled classic. The losers would almost certainly have failed to get into the top two, while the winner would have skipped into their next two games thinking of what might be ahead in the semi-final.
Instead the points have been shared and if every match now goes ahead without a hitch, England can consider themselves having a huge advantage. With Australia's last group game against Afghanistan taking place next Friday, if England beat New Zealand in Brisbane on Tuesday, they will go into their final game against the Chris Silverwood coached Sri Lanka knowing exactly what they have to do in order to get ahead on net run rate.
The first priority clearly is to win the games, but with Australia suffering such a heavy defeat to the Kiwis in the tournament opener, England are still in the box seat as they leave Melbourne to dry itself out in time for the final on November 13th.
“The way the weather is, it is going to be like playing a final every game,” said England all rounder Ben Stokes. “That is what these competitions are about, you are always under pressure to perform.
“I think we’ll be looking forward to the next two games. It is obviously a shame for the people who were going to turn out tonight.
“There was a big crowd expected and it is one of the great venues to play at. The MCG with all the history and things like that for England v Australia but yeah, it's a shame.”
There is a reason why Cricket Australia doesn't arrange much if any international cricket for their teams during October. A quick search of the official Australia.com website has the following advice about travelling to Melbourne this month: “Pack your umbrella – October is the wettest month.”
And so it has proven with three games out of five being washed out at the MCG and another heavily rain affected. In their entire history there have only ever been three Tests - two against Zimbabwe and a World XI - and three T20s in October, and it is easy to see why.
The timing for this tournament was determined way back in 2014 by the full member nations of the ICC. It means that the tournament does not disrupt Australia's bilateral international cricket on home soil in December and January, nor does it distract from the Big Bash.
