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Pakistan narrowly missed out on their maiden ODI success versus the English side at the Colombo venue this Wednesday, reaching 34 runs without losing a wicket in pursuit of a revised Duckworth-Lewis-Stern goal set at 113 before pouring rain cut short their aspirations of making history.

England's Batting Struggles

England's offensive play has stumbled from crisis to crisis in this tournament – they needed rescuing through Heather Knight's efforts against Bangladesh with Nat Sciver-Brunt's contribution against Sri Lanka – in this match it seemed as if their vulnerabilities would come back to trouble them, as they collapsed to 79 runs with seven wickets down within the initial 25 overs.

Showers and Resumption

After an initial rain delay for about four hours, The English side resumed to add 54 further runs – yet the Pakistani openers the duo of Ali and Sohail looked to be making short work the target, helped by the non-participation of England's main bowlers Bell and Ecclestone due to sickness. Solely more showers spared England embarrassment.

“Pakistan bowled brilliantly and posed serious challenges for us to get into the game at all,” the England captain Nat Sciver-Brunt told Sky Sports. "Our performance was insufficient and we accept responsibility. The team is preparing effectively and perhaps it's a matter of finding a way to transfer that to matches.”

Competition Consequences

The washed-out game indicates that The English team continues their path to reach the knockout stage as long as they win any of their last three preliminary games against India, Australia and New Zealand.

Pitch Conditions and Bowling Dominance

This tournament has thus far been ideal for spin bowlers, however in this match it was prodigious swing which caused problems to the England top order, following heavy rain the previous day which washed out the remaining portion of the Sri Lankan contest against New Zealand. Pakistan's emerging leader Sana delivered a remarkable spell with figures of 5-1-19-3, including a wicket maiden initially, dismissing Amy Jones through the defense via an inward-moving ball.

Key Moments and DRS Drama

Knight again rescued herself with a timely DRS review against Sana that was going past leg stump, but then the Pakistani skipper to claim two scalps in the following over with two more swinging balls – the first of which Nat Sciver-Brunt chopped on her wickets, and a second which trapped Knight directly in front.

Before this, Beaumont had shouldered arms against Diana Baig and was bowled by a nip-backer which hit the top of the off stump, whereas it was the spin from the left side from Sadia Iqbal which did for both Dunkley and Lamb.

Tournament Scheduling Questions

Doubts might emerge about the decision to host part of the World Cup in Colombo throughout the rainy season, given that this is the third abandonment on this pitch – but England will simply breathe a sigh of relief as they move on to Indore.