That's that, then. For now, it's me - Abhijato - and Ashish, Vairavan, Chandan, all saying an early goodbye from Cricinfo. See you all for the next one!

8.15pm Ashish has plucked out his spiritual umbrella and stepped out to address other work. On the other hand, it continues to rain heavily. The umpires are having a chat with the match referee. They all head into the India changing room.

And guess what, they emerge to shake hands! The game has been abandoned, rather anti-climactically. But we still have four matches left in this mega-series. There's plenty of action yet to come.

8pm It is still raining steadily. Vithushan, meanwhile, informs that the cut-off time for a five-over game is 9pm local/1.30am IST. That's just about an hour from now. This is starting to look a little bleak. Sampath also breaks down England's target if and when play resumes: It will be 64 for a five-over chase, 74 for a six-over chase, 85 for seven and 94 for an eight-over chase.

Derek : "Why is Samson been given so many chances though being a flop show?" That's a little harsh. Hasn't he just a couple of months back helped India win a World Cup?

Razakaku: "If today's match is washed out, will the first-innings scoreboard still be considered for the official records?" Yes

7.40pm No update, really. The rain is still heavy and the covers firmly in place. As we were.

Manu Dhillon: "Just checked on statsguru, this is India's 3rd international game in Durham, earlier 2 ODIs were washed out after India batted first" Hah, yes.

Gaurav Reddy: "Virat, Surya, Raina, Abhishek and Yuvraj my current top 5. Vaibhav almost certain to surpass them all at some point."

Ben : "1. Kohli 2. surya 3. Rohit 4. Raina 5. abhishek "

Niks: "Yuvraj, Kohli, Raina, Rohit and Abhishek are the top 5 Indian T20I batters!! "

Anirudh: "Surya is probably the second best T20I batter for India. With his strike rate and consistency overall. Has a really good average as well plus 5 hundreds. " Just out of curiosity, who tops the list. In fact, what's the top five?

Jamie: "Stunning sunshine just a mile or two south of the Oval "

7.30pm Welcome back. The covers are firmly in place and Vithushan Ehantharajah pings with: "Really heavy rain now, think we might be in trouble."

Mayank Parihar: "During the first innings I was just thinking to myself, English game but no Andrew Miller." He is very much there, running the Live blog

Covers coming on, Vish tells us from the ground. Ohho: now covers from the rest of the square are being brought out. We might be in with a bit of a wait, here...

And ECB with this official update: Salt is off the field with a jarred shoulder when diving in the field. As it is an external blow, he will be able to open batting.

7.15pm A strange innings, not quite the riposte India would have wanted from its batters after their 2-0 loss to Ireland. Still, it might be enough for them on a pitch that has something in it for the bowlers. The rain complicates things for India's bowlers though, just as it did for the spinners here. Abhishek's fifty was rollicking, and Iyer's topsy-turvy 68 was the icing on the cake for this innings. Rashid bowled admirably in the final overs to pull this game back for England. Come back in ten minutes; join Ashish, then, to see how England get going in this chase!

Vignesh : "Oh no! That GOAT comment was completely unnecessary. You truly opened a can of worms there.. " - I know! It's so tantalising to bait folks. The worms are wriggling out at an astounding pace here, hehe...

It's absolutely pouring here, the cameras are all blurring up because of the raindrops too! India will finish this innings off though.

Some wet works in the feedback section too. Adnan: "oh so "the real ones" argument.. please thats nonsense.. GOAT carries a relentless performance every year, not 2019-2022 .. Dhoni, Kohli, can and should be called Goats.. get a grip dude "

Vidhu: "sky made his intl debut in 2021" - There's a reason he forced his way into the side, in his 30s!

Sourav : "Abhijato doesn't publish the comments of his critics" - Untrue, QED.

Vamsi Krishna: "As Karthikeya datta says, singles are overrated in T20. Dube vs Spinners, he should have faced all siz balls from rashid and hoped to hit 1 more six in the last three. That is a far better outcome than the single. " - Yeah, Rana was sent out there to hit out ahead of Axar, so he tried his best tbh. But I don't think T20 cricket is at a stage where - say barring that infamous Steve Smith-Babar Azam incident - batters hog the strike for six-hitting with another capable hitter at the other end.

Hari : "How consistent and reliable has Adil Rashid been for England? Always phenomenal. I also like this idea of spinners bowling at the death."

Ravi Mandhan: "Surya - GOAT? I hope when rationality gets grip of you, you would realise you were not serious here. " - Only the real ones remember SKY between 2019 and 2022, sigh...

Rashid back here, to bowl the 19th.

Aditya: "Just won a world cup is invalid argument. Surya should be in 11 in that scenario. " - Blimey, I do think he should be in the eleven. I said what I said. Though a break from internationals, and captaincy, will do his batting good. The GOAT might still got it...

Karthik: "Case fro play Boss baby next match, Samson no:3, Ishan no:4 and drop Tilak??? " - These folks just won a T20 World Cup. Everyone, take a breath, c'mon!

Rain is quite heavy; the ball must be quite slippery.