Rain caused the England-Scotland T20 World Cup match to be abandoned.

 Rain caused the England-Scotland T20 World Cup match to be abandoned.

On June 4, 2024, at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados, England and Scotland played in the ICC Men's T20 CWC group B match. George Munsey (L) and Michael Jones (R) of Scotland were in the match. Image: AFP

In their T20 World Cup opening match in Barbados on Tuesday, Scotland's George Munsey and Michael Jones gave England a scare before the rain saved the reigning champions from a potentially difficult chase.

Scotland was hoping to duplicate their stunning victory over England in their previous meeting, a six-run one-day international victory in Edinburgh back in 2018, in their maiden Twenty20 match against their border rivals.

Jos Buttler's team lost six of their nine games in India last year during their terrible 50-over world title defence, so England was keen to turn things around.

However, following Tuesday's toss win by Scotland skipper Richie Berrington, they were unable to muster even a single convincing opportunity to take wickets.

At the Kensington Oval, Munsey (41 not out off 31 balls) and Jones (45 not out off 30) batted brilliantly to lead Scotland to 90-0 in a rain-interrupted 10-over innings.

The long delay in Scotland's innings, which ended with 51-0 off 6.2 overs, meant that England's Duckworth-Lewis-Stern aim of 109 in 10 overs was changed.

Before England could start their response on a field where they won the 2010 T20 World Cup, the umpires had to call off the Group B encounter due to more rain.

Scotland and England both scored one point.

"There are no easy games, so we were confident going into the game," England skipper Buttler said. "We expected a tough challenge."


It's disappointing for all of us... We put forth a lot of effort and were sure we could lower that score."

Earlier, Munsey, a left-hander, was on 16 when he top-edged a hook off Mark Wood high to wicketkeeper Buttler, but the fast bowler's no-ball saved him.
The England player who led his country to victory in the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, Buttler, remarked, "No-ball wickets are always disappointing, but these things happen."

"Hopefully we get a dry day and we can get into the tournament," he continued. England's match against Australia is scheduled to return to the Kensington Oval on Saturday.

'Positives' 

Berrington, on the other hand, could not stop thinking about the possibilities.

"Everyone's frustrated, but there are some positives to take at least," he said. Scotland will play Namibia, another non-Test nation, on Thursday at the stadium.


We can learn from the excellent work done by the folks in the center. There, we gave ourselves a chance."

Jones had just returned from a stint with English county Durham when he smashed Chris Jordan for 14 runs in three balls at the competition.

Two searing fours followed a massive drawn six that took off a solar panel on a stand's roof.

After the match, new rules that restricted bowlers to two overs apiece meant that Wood and fellow fast

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid (0-26) was hammered for massive sixes by Jones and Munsey as Scotland scored a further 39 runs off 22 balls.

In his debut international at his home field, Barbados-born Archer finished his two overs with figures of 0-12, but Wood reached high velocities of 94 mph (151 kph).