Hello and welcome to
Sports Mole's coverage of the first one-day international between
England and
Australia at Headingley.
Before anyone gets too excited about play starting in 10 minutes time, I must bring you bad news. It is raining cats, dogs and whatever else in Yorkshire so we won't be getting underway on time.
I have to say, it's looking likely that it will be a complete washout at Headingley, but there is the slimmest of chances that there might be some play during the afternoon.
There's already some huge puddles forming on the outfield. Does anyone have a canoe? If you do, that could be fun.
Neither side will not name their lineup until the toss takes place, that's if it takes place at all.
Given that there is no prospect of play for at least a few hours, we are going to leave things there for now, but don't worry, as soon as there is an update from Headingley, we will bring it you here.
Pundit and former England coach David Lloyd has just posted on his official Twitter account that there is "zero" prospect of any play today. That's it, David, nice and positive...
The latest from Headingley is that there will be a pitch inspection at 1pm, despite the rain continuing to pour down in Yorkshire.
The cut-off point is 3.22pm. If there has been no play by that time, then the game will be abandoned. I suspect we might be done for the day long before then though.
It looks as though it has stopped raining. No, I'm being serious, it actually has. We await further news...
Bad news...the rain is back. The umpires are out in the middle, but any decision regarding play is being taken out of their hands at the moment. It looks extremely bleak.
If the rain did stop, we would be looking at another couple of hours before any play. The ground staff would have a tough task in getting the pitch and outfield ready for play before the cut-off time of 3.22pm.
Apparently, there will be another inspection at 1.30pm. Make of that what you will.
I'm expecting an update in the next few minutes. Surely the umpires will put us out of our misery?
MATCH ABANDONED!
I guess the umpires must have been following Sports Mole. That's it for today, folks. It was always the likely outcome though.
We will try again at Old Trafford on Sunday. Goodbye for now.
