Rain forces abandonment of lone men's T20I between New Zealand and Netherlands

Napier, March 25

Rain continued to interrupt cricket matches in New Zealand, with the lone men's T20I between New Zealand and the Netherlands abandoned without a ball being bowled.

Even before the start of the match, it was raining at McLean Park. But suddenly, rain stopped 30 minutes away from the start time.

As the ground staff worked hard to clean the turf, umpires were doing an inspection at 6:30pm local time. But there was another inspection scheduled by the umpires for 7pm local time, presumably dissatisfied by the condition of the outfield.

But rain again arrived, pushing the inspection to 8pm local time. With minutes left for the inspection, rain again came and 20 minutes later, umpires had to call off the possibility of any play to happen, where the toss wasn't even held.

The Netherlands tour of New Zealand now moves on to the three-match ODI series, starting from Mount Maunganui on March 29 followed by the next two matches in Hamilton.

The ODIs are a part of the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup Super League, where New Zealand and Netherlands are right at the bottom of the points table, sitting at 12th and 13th position respectively.

New Zealand have played just three matches and won all of them. Netherlands, on the other hand, have featured in seven matches so far, winning two, losing four and one ending as no result.

The ODIs against the Netherlands will also act as a swansong for veteran New Zealand batter Ross Taylor in international cricket. Taylor had already retired from Tests after the series at home against Bangladesh. The series will be streamed on Amazon Prime Video for viewers in India.