Rain ruins Glam’s opening T20 clash

GLAMORGAN’S first game in this season’s Vitality T20 Blast competition - against Worcestershire Rapids at Sophia Gardens - was abandoned without a ball being bowled.

After heavy rain throughout the morning there were pools of water on every part of the ground with the expectation that play would have been called off after lunch.

The rain then cleared, but despite the valiant efforts of the groundsman and his staff, the two umpires, Jeremy Lloyds and Jeff Evans, after two inspections at 5pm and 6.30pm decided that the ground had not dried sufficiently for play to start.

Glamorgan’s next game will be against Gloucestershire at Bristol on Saturday followed with a home game against Birmingham Bears the following day.

■ ENGLAND captain Joe Root’s return to county cricket was delayed as rain also ruined the opening Vitality T20 Blast clash between Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire at Emerald Headingley.

Root was due to play for the hosts in this North Group fixture only two days after finishing the summer Test programme against Pakistan at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl on Tuesday.

But heavy rain from mid-afternoon onwards in Leeds forced umpires Peter Hartley and Neil Mallender to call the game off shortly after 7pm last night.

Since meeting in the second round of the Bob Willis four-day Trophy at Trent Bridge earlier this month, a fixture which Yorkshire won, bad weather has forced both sides to settle for draws in their following two fixtures.

And despite a switch in format, that trend has continued with both taking a point apiece.

This was also a repeat of last season when rain forced the abandonment of the 2019 opening night fixture between the Vikings and the Outlaws.

Root’s availability moving forwards is unclear, although Yorkshire hope he will be able to play in the home match against Derbyshire on Sunday.

His last Blast appearance came for Yorkshire against Lancashire at Old Trafford in 2018, a defeat in which he scored 51. He has since made seven Twenty20 appearances for Sydney Thunder in Australia’s Big Bash either side of Christmas 2018 and four for England.

Kent sufferedt agony after being denied an emphatic South Group win over Hampshire by rain showers in Canterbury.

Seemingly cruising to an opening-round win at 52 without loss after only 25 deliveries of their reply, the heavens opened at 4.20pm forcing Kent’s openers Daniel Bell-Drummond and Zak Crawley off with only five more deliveries needing to be bowled to constitute a completed match.