Champions Trophy: New Zealand v Australia rained off after Kane Williamson century

New Zealand and Australia were forced to accept a point each from their Champions Trophy clash at Edgbaston after rain led to the match being abandoned nine overs into the second innings.

Kane Williamson had hit a superb century before New Zealand lost 7-37 and were bowled out for 291 in 45 overs with seamer Josh Hazlewood claiming career-best ODI figures of 6-52 for Australia.

But after the Black Caps reduced Australia to 53-3 in nine overs, rain stopped play for the third time in the match and with no sign of it relenting, the umpires were forced to call it off.

Having won the toss and opted to bat, Martin Guptill got New Zealand off to a flying start and once he was dismissed by Hazlewood for 26, Luke Ronchi, having played a supporting role to that point, thrust himself to the fore.

A rain delay of almost two hours reduced the match to 46 overs per side but Ronchi looked as though he had never left the middle as he continued to fire once played resumed.

After a blistering 65 from 43 balls, he fell to John Hastings but the runs continued to flow with Williamson and Ross Taylor (46) sharing a 99-run stand for the third wicket.

Having taken 62 balls to reach his fifty, Williamson kicked on and took just another 34 to bring up his ninth ODI hundred.

However, his run out was the first of seven wickets to go down in just 5.5 overs as New Zealand crumbled.

Hazlewood was the chief beneficiary as a succession of Kiwi batsmen holed out to the boundary before he wrapped things up with a more conventional fast bowler’s wicket – Trent Boult edging behind in the 45th over.

The rain came down again during the innings break and by the time the game restarted, Australia’s innings had been cut to 33 overs and a revised target of 235 was set.

After beginning in typically aggressive style – upper-cutting a six off Tim Southee – David Warner was dismissed in the sixth over as he nicked through to Ronchi behind the stumps after charging down the pitch to Boult.

His fellow opener, Aaron Finch fell to Adam Milne in the next and after hitting four fours in his 16-ball knock, Moises Henriques was next to go – a thick inside edge onto his pad giving Milne a simple return catch.

The all-rounder was followed off the pitch by the rest of the players though as the heavens opened again to curtail the match.

The result sees England stay top of Group A and Eoin Morgan’s side will have the chance to seal their place in the semi-finals with a win over New Zealand on Tuesday.

(c) Sky News 2017: Champions Trophy: New Zealand v Australia rained off after Kane Williamson century