13 Jun 2013

Points shared after NZ-Australia Champions Trophy match abandoned

6:59 am on 13 June 2013

The New Zealand-Australia group match at the Champions Trophy cricket tournament in Birmingham has been abandoned.

Rain intervened 15 overs into the Black Caps' run chase after they'd done well to restrict Australia to 243 for eight.

They'd got to 51 for two when rain sent them from the field.

The teams receive one point each so New Zealand have three and Australia one - not a bad result for the Black Caps, who now only need Sri Lanka to lose one of their two remaining games or themselves to knock over England to book a spot in the finals.

For Australia, a washed out draw all but sinks them even if they win their last game against Sri Lanka, as their net run rate is so far behind New Zealand's.

In the lead-up to the match the Australian opening batsman David Warner was stood down for an unprovoked assault on the young English batsman Joe Root in a nightclub incident in the early hours of the morning in Birmingham.