CHESTER-LE-STREET, England, July 1 (Reuters) - England and India were left frustrated as the opening game of their three-match T20 series was abandoned because of rain at the halfway stage.
India, who came into the match on the back of a surprise series defeat in Ireland, had posted a competitive target of 189-7 in their 20 overs after contrasting half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma and Shreyas Iyer.
England’s chase, though, did not get underway with the drizzle that had fallen for the majority of India’s innings intensifying and the game was called off at 2017 local time.
India, who again chose to delay a debut for their 15-year-old batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, had fought back well from a terrible start.
They were 6-2 after two overs with opener Sanju Samson departing to a flying catch by Tom Banton at backward point off Saqib Mahmood and Ishan Kishan run out two balls later by Harry Brook after a mix-up with Abhishek Sharma.
Sharma, deposed by Kishan at the top of the ICC T20 batting rankings, shrugged off the incident to take the attack to England, despatching Mahmood for successive sixes.
It took the 25-year-old past 100 T20 international sixes. He is the quickest player to reach the milestone off 785 balls.
Three successive boundaries off Luke Wood maintained the momentum as India reached 61-2 at the end of the six-over powerplay.
The onslaught gave Brook, who was captaining England’s white-ball side two days after being part of the test team that lost the series to New Zealand, a lot to think about.
He turned to Sam Curran and it proved a smart call as the left-armer trapped Sharma lbw with his second ball for an exhilarating 59 off 24 balls.
India captain Iyer, who hit a beautiful six over extra cover off Wood, made a more workmanlike 68 off 47 balls before falling lbw to Mahmood who finished with 3-33.
Shivam Dube finished on 42 not out from 21 balls.
India, who beat England in a high-scoring semi-final on their way to lifting the World Cup in March, would have been pleased with their total but England were still in the game.
The teams move on to Old Trafford, Manchester for the second game of the series on Saturday.
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(Reporting by Neil Squires, editing by Ed Osmond)
