At a wet and windy Stormont, the warm-up match between Nepal and Oman was abandoned after only seventeen overs of play.

Nepal’s captain Gyenandra Malla had won the toss and chosen to bowl first, but the Omani openers Zeeshan Maqsood and Khawar Ali made a glorious start, reaching 46-0 by the end of the power play.

Ali fell for 22 to the off-spin of Sagar Pun, caught at point off a spiralling top edge, but the left-handed Maqsood continued to pull and cut fiercely before holing out to long-on for 44 off 31 balls (4 fours, 3 sixes).

Jatinder Singh and Vaibhav Wategaonkar then rebuilt for Oman before both were dismissed in the space of seven balls: Singh (14 off 15 balls) clipped a short ball to deep mid-wicket while Wategaonkar (23 off 17) gave Sompal Kami his second catch at long-on.

The rain, which had been persistent throughout the Omani innings, then worsened and forced the players off the pitch with the score on 115-4 after 16.3 overs.

With seemingly no ‘grace’ allowed for inclement weather, the innings was closed almost immediately and Nepal began their pursuit of 126 in 16 overs under DLS.

Only three balls were possible before the rain returned.