England and Pakistan to try again on Tuesday
Mon 20 Jun 2016
By Jon Culley
Heather Knight's debut as the new England Women's cricket captain has been delayed by bad weather.
Knight, who took over from Charlotte Edwards in the role in May, was to have led the side for the first time in the opening Royal London one-day international between England Women and Pakistan Women at the Fischer County Ground today.
But heavy rain in the morning, which initially delayed the scheduled 2pm start, left the outfield sodden.
Despite the very best efforts of the groundstaff to mop up over the following three hours, umpires Martin Saggers and Alex Wharf called off play for the day soon after five o'clock, without a ball bowled.
England and Pakistan will return tomorrow, the scheduled reserve day, to try again at 10.30am. Tickets for the game remain valid tomorrow.
The series between England and Pakistan counts towards the 2014-16 ICC Women's Championship, which is part of the qualification process for the 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup, in which England are the hosts.
The top four from the eight-nation competition qualify automatically with the bottom four joining six other nations in a separate competition to determine the other four World Cup places.
Automatic qualification places are currently occupied by Australia, West Indies, New Zealand and South Africa.
England are sixth, two points behind South Africa, having played 12 of the 21 matches that count towards the ICC Women's Championship, but with three matches in hand on the top four.
After the current series, England conclude the qualification process with three matches in the West Indies and three in Sri Lanka in the autumn.
Pakistan are five points behind England in seventh place with just four wins and eight points from their first 12 matches but did beat England by one run when the sides last met on English soil in a T20 match in 2013.
