Pakistan v Sri Lanka: start delayed at Cricket World Cup 2019 – live!

There will be an inspection at 2.30pm. It has stopped raining, so there is an outside chance that they could start in a couple of hours’ time.

“What are the rules if no play?” says Tom Carver. “Points shared? Try again tomorrow?”

Points shared. There are no reserve days until the semi-finals.

“’Sup, Bob?” says Mac Millings. “If the weather in my neck of the woods is any guide (and I’m sure it is), you’re looking at three more overcast days with a high chance of intermittent thunderstorms, followed by two weeks of 35-degree temperatures accompanied by Satan’s Undies levels of humidity. Also, more than half of everyone will be chewing tobacco and carrying a rifle in the back of their pick-up truck.”

I had no idea you’d moved to Sittingbourne.

The match needs to begin by 4.19pm local time, which is just over two hours away. Even if it stops raining, the outfield will take a long time to dry. I would say there are two chances of play today, and slim only plays red-ball cricket.

Thanks Simon, hello everyone. Let’s start with the bleedin’ obvious (and still bleedin’ brilliant).

I’m going to step away from all this excitement for a while and hand over to Rob Smyth, who will guide you through the latest meteorological madness. Email him here, if you’d be so kind. Before I go, here’s a rain-related classic courtesy of @MashMath on Twitter. The chorus is, er, unexpected.

Sky have briefly interrupted their broadcast of highlights of previous games to bring us an extremely dispiriting live picture of a still emphatically soggy Bristol.

Here’s some rainy-day reading:

“Why-oh-why don’t they have alternative venues to use in case of a forecast washout?” wonders Andrew Benton. “Hands up for Hove, Eastbourne and Arundel, some of the sunniest places in the country!” Even with absolutely no knowledge of organising global sporting spectacles and a naturally optimistic outlook, that seems like a headache too far.

4.19pm is today’s precise cut-off point. There will be play by then, or there will be no play. In the meantime, another rainy-day favourite:

This chap is studying meteorology at university and thus should know his weather-forecasting stuff:

They need to start by about 4.15pm if a 20-overs-a-side match is going to be squeezed into the day. So, just another few hours of rain-watching before we’re allowed to give up.

You can find the latest weather forecast for Bristol here. It makes for pretty grim reading, and given the amount of water already on the outfield and the general expectation that there’ll be a lot more dumped on it before the day’s out, I’d be very surprised if there’s any play. On the plus side, the County Ground DJ will be able to give his entire rain-themed playlist an airing. Here’s a fairly obscure suggestion:

Update: It’s still raining in Bristol.

“For those of us sitting in our offices, without access to headphones, can you let us know what the DJ is playing?” pleads Martyn Fairbrother. “I’m guessing Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head and It’s Raining Men.” No doubt they’ll get to those eventually, but the songs in those clips were Umbrella by Rihanna and Thunder by Imagine Dragons.

Rohit Singh has an update about the big yellow blob. “I heard one is on a state visit to England,” he joshes.

If I have one complaint about this World Cup so far, it’s that there hasn’t been enough coverage of the branded apples. They are being given out again to those hardy souls who have braved the Bristol downpours today. Fruit is a new battleground in the battle for branding. Where next?

“This is set in all day, mate,” forecasts Sarah Balfour. “Met Office says thunderstorms later, which will be fun, I love a good storm. Better at night, though, when you can see the lightning. There’s a big yellow blob, which where I live is under too. Any road, looking at the forecast and the first possible dry patch isn’t until 16:00 which is far too late to even get in a T20-style game.”

I should add that the big yellow blob is on the Met Office’s website. There is not a literal big yellow blob covering much of England, which would be alarming, and probably significant enough to warrant its own liveblog.

A couple of photos of a soggy Bristol this morning:

In 1992 Pakistan were thrashed by West Indies in their first game, won their second, and the third was a washout. We all know how that ended. “Pakistan; get a hiding in the first game, glorious comeback, then rain intervenes. Just like 1992. They are going to win it aren’t they?” suggests Andrew Benzeval.

There is some actual sport happening in Paris, where Jo Konta’s French Open semi-final against Marketa Vondrousova has just started. Follow it here:

At this World Cup were told to expect a deluge of runs, a flood of fun, a downpour of excitement. Today, however, we are expected to get just a deluge, a downpour, and potentially a flood. The Met Office, Britain’s meteorological masters, have issued a yellow weather warning. “Flooding of a few homes and businesses is likely,” they say. This is not promising. They suggest a 90% chance of rain in Bristol at 10am, rising to in excess of 95% between 11am and 1pm. At 2pm it drops to 80% and the afternoon looks (comparatively) much better, never exceeding a 60% chance of precipitation with just a 10% chance in the hour after 3pm. There needs to be enough dry time to squeeze at least 20 overs a side between the showers in order for the result to stand, and there are no reserve days set aside until the semi-finals.

Potentially useful information for ticket-holders: you’ll get a full refund if no more than 15 overs are played, and a 50% refund if more than 15 overs but fewer than 30 overs are completed.