Chester-le-Street, Sep 3: Uninterrupted rain forced the first One-Day International between England and India to be abandoned early into the England chase; the minimum overs required to determine a winner on Duckworth/Lewis had not been bowled when the game was called off.

Being put in to bat earlier in the day, India looked pretty much on top having reduced the hosts to 27 for two after posting a competitive total of 274 for seven in 50.0 overs.

India went into this match without Sachin Tendulkar; the batting maestro was ruled out of the game with an unconfirmed injury. The visitors, desperate for a win, played an unchanged side from the T20 game against England a few days ago.

Parthiv Patel and Ajinkya Rahane, making his ODI debut, gave India a solid start with an 82-run opening stand. Rahane made 40 before he top edged a short ball from Stuart Broad to Samit Patel. Rahul Dravid (2) followed Rahane soon after when he was ruled caught behind by the third umpire even as the DRS, yet again, proved to be inconclusive. India were 87 for two in 17.4 overs at the fall of Dravid’s wicket.

A productive passage of play followed for India as Patel and Virat Kohli put on a 103-run stand for the third wicket. Patel was all class, regularly pulling the England bowlers the moment they bowled short to him. Kohli, meanwhile, was happy to rotate the strike and allowed Patel to do the bulk of the scoring.

Unfortunately, though, Patel fell five short of what might have been his first ODI century. James Anderson enticed him into playing a shot through the covers and Patel only managed to edge the ball through to wicketkeeper Craig Kieswetter. It was Anderson’s 200th wicket in ODIs.

With Patel gone, India lost their way a bit. Rohit Sharma suffered a broken finger off the first ball he faced from Stuart Broad and was forced to retire hurt. Kohli, having helped himself to his 16th half-century, dragged a delivery from Samit Patel onto his stumps to leave India at 206 for four in 29.3 overs.

With five top order batsmen back in the pavilion, Suresh Raina (38 off 29) and MS Dhoni (33 off 36) played sensibly to take India’s score to 274 for the loss of seven wickets. For England, Stuart Broad and Tim Bresnan took two wickets each.

India, looking for their first win of the tour against the hosts, then got off to a great start as Praveen Kumar removed openers Alastair Cook (4) and Craig Kieswetter (6) within the first seven overs.

However, rain interrupted proceedings just as the second ball of the eighth over had been bowled. Despite hopes of resumption, the game was eventually called off at half-past-five local time.

Brief scores: India 274/7 in 50.0 overs (Parthiv Patel 95, Virat Kohli 55, Tim Bresnan 2/54) and England 27 for two in 7.2 overs (Jonathan Trott 14*, Praveen Kumar 2/11). Match abandoned due to rain