Rain washes out India-England World Cup warm-up match

Guwahati: Persistent rain on Saturday washed out the World Cup warm-up match between India and England at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium here.

It began raining a little before the start of the match on Saturday afternoon, which resulted in the toss being delayed but later in the evening the umpires decided to abandon the contest, a little before 6pm local time owing to inclement weather.

All 10 teams will get to play two warm-up matches each before the group stage of the 50-over World Cup which gets underway in Ahmedabad on October 5.

England will face New Zealand in the World Cup opener.

England, who arrived in India a day before their first warm-up match, will remain in Guwahati to play their second and final warm-up game against Bangladesh on October 2.

On the other hand, India, who travelled all the way to Guwahati on Thursday after completing a 2-1 series win over Australia, will now fly to Thiruvananthapuram for their second warm-up match against the Netherlands on October 3.

The warm-up matches began on Friday with Sri Lanka suffering a seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Bangladesh here, while New Zealand defeated Pakistan in a high-scoring contest in Hyderabad.

The warm-up matches are being played at three venues Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Hyderabad.