As it happened - South Africa vs Zimbabwe in Hobart

South Africa have been denied a victory in their T20 World Cup opener after rain meant their reduced fixture against Zimbabwe could not be completed.

After a two-hour and 35-minute delay, the match was reduced to nine-overs a side. Zimbabwe recovered from being 19 for 4 to set South Africa a target of 80, which was then cut down to a target of 64 in seven overs. South Africa were well ahead of their DLS par score when they went off for rain, which meant they only had to come back onto the field to be declared winners but as the rain got harder, hands were shaken and points shared.

After their net run-rate proved too little for South Africa to advance to the knockouts last year, they baatted as though they were acutely aware of the need to score quickly this time. Quinton de Kock blasted an 18-ball 47, with eight fours and a six and hogged strike but it was not enough to get them over the line. The one point South Africa have dropped could be crucial in the context of the tournament. Assuming there are no major upsets in this group, their match against Pakistan on Thursday becomes a virtual quarterfinal.

I'll see you there. Until then - enjoy the cricket!

Some protesting from Zimbabwe now and the umpires have made the call to take the players off the field. South Africa need 13 runs to win this match. We haven't had five overs bowled yet. There's eight minutes left to play.

It's wet out there and injury concerns have been a talking point. Richard Ngarava has slipped in this follow-through and has now left the field in extremely laboured fashion.

Two overs lost.

South Africa's target is now 64. They need 40 more runs in 5.5 overs.

With just eight balls bowled in the South African innings, rain has returned and the players have left the field. Although South Africa are well ahead of the DLS par, we haven't yet had the minimum number of overs bowled, so we don't yet have a game.

If Zimbabwe thought they had something to work with, Quinton de Kock quickly showed them it was not nearly as much as they thought. He tucked into Tendai Chatara's over, which ended up going like this:

Despite a strike of 82 this year and South Africa's knowledge of how net run-rate may matter, Temba Bavuma backed himself and remained at the top of the order for the start of the chase.

After slumping to 19 for 4, and a batting approach that was as far as composed as it got, Zimbabwe have their attack something to defend thanks to an aggressive fifth-wicket partnership from Wessly Madhevere and Milton Shumba. They hit six fours and a six in their time together, and maintained a scoring rate of more than 10 runs an over to show that the Zimbabwean line-up has more to it than just Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza.

And in some style!

Have a look at this, in Rabada's second over. It included a heave over midwicket, a upper cut over de Kock, and a well-timed cut.

With four bowlers allowed to bowl four overs each, Temba Bavuma chose Wayne Parnell and Lungi Ngidi to bowl out early on. They took three wickets for 26 runs in four overs between them.

The first round teams spoke about Test match lengths as being the key to success on this surface and just look at Lungi Ngidi's first over:

A nine-over innings can only be approached in one way: swing. And that's what Zimbabwe did. Or at least tried to do. Regis Chakabva is still searching for his touch after scores of 0, 13 and 4 in the opening round and was tentative against Kagiso Rabada but Craig Ervine heaved at the first two deliveries he faced from Wayne Parnell and then toe-ended the ball to Lungi Ngidi at mid-on. Chakabva showed some intent when he sent Ngidi over deep backward square but Ngidi quickly dragged his length back and had Chakabva nicking off off the next ball. Zimbabwe sent in Sikandar Raza early but he could not continue his stunning run. He top-edged a short ball high and almost over Quinton de Kock's head, but the South African 'keeper timed his jump well and snatched it with one hand. Zimbabwe's Powerplay resulted in only 14 runs for the loss of three wickets.

Yeeeeha! We're finally going to get going.

This is a severely reduced match but at least there's some cricket. There will be a three-over Powerplay upfront and four bowlers can bowl a maximum of two overs each. So it's going to be a juggle.

We were all set to go with an umpire inspection but alas... the drizzle has returned and the covers are back on. All this means Temba Bavuma is not going to have much time, if any, to get runs under his belt and the pressure on him, ahead of bigger fixtures will only grow. Our experts have some views on how Bavuma is handling the heat.

... before the cut-off for a five-over shoot-out. Stay with us as the next inspection happens.

We know South Africa have some history with rain-affected games, but in case you needed reminding of the times when they've been washed out of World Cups, here we go.

On their return to international cricket, and their first major tournament, South Africa made the semi-finals in 1992 before they were faced with an impossible equation: 22 runs off 1 ball. Sidharth Monga has since argued that South Africa weren't that unlucky after all. Try telling them that!

Then, current head coach Mark Boucher misunderstood the Duckworth-Lewis sheet and batted for the number of runs that would tie the game, but not win it in 2003. South Africa were booted out of their own World Cup in the first round.

And just seven years ago, rain increased New Zealand's target in that semi-final in 2015 but a conundrum of events including interference in team selection and dropped catches saw South Africa bow out.

Remember that the toss took place more than 90 minutes ago and it's not as though there's been a lot for players to do but think about the game at hand. What happens if Bavuma would have preferred Marco Jansen? Or Craig Ervine decided he needed Tony Munyonga in the team?

Anil Kumble, Faf du Plessis and Andy Flower have a few thoughts:

It's looking increasingly bleak out there and we should probably start thinking about what it means if we have no play at all. Points will be shared and you'd imagine South Africa won't be thrilled about that at all. They would have hoped to bank a win here, and their game against Pakistan may then have been a quarterfinal of sorts. But if they're denied maximum points, it would make their hopes of qualification for the knockouts much more complicated.

Overs are now being lost in Hobart. The ICC's playing conditions have allocated 1 hour and 25 minutes per innings and a total match time of 190 minutes (two innings of 85 minutes each plus a 20-minute interval).

The start of this match has already been delayed by more than an hour. Have a look at the playing conditions below to see what happens if we have a reduced match. The cut-off time for a five-over match is 10.03pm local time. It's 8.15pm in Melbourne now so we have just under two hours.

Every cricket writer's "other" job is to be a meteorologist, and I'm doing my bit here. See below an exclusive image from our man on the ground, Danyal Rasool, who says that even if you can't quite see it, the rain is sweeping in from the Derwent River and ... there's no wind.

Sorry, but it's not looking good at the minute.

Zimbabwe don't often find themselves in the spotlight, and you'd be forgiven if you don't know too much about them. While we wait for the rain to stop at the Bellerive Oval, dive into some essential reading right here.

First up, my colleague Danyal Rasool took a deep into the life of Blessing Muzarabani. He is over two metres tall and known for being the silent type, but there's plenty to his backstory that you want to know.

And then, I had a chat with Ryan Burl ahead of the tournament, where we chatted about his injury history, his love (and mine) for the fans at Castle Corner and those shoes.

And if you need something else to do, why not check out the Cricinfoverse! Here’s our own virtual world with the latest videos, stats, news, games, and much more - check it out!

Some mizzle has settled in in Hobart, which Shaun Pollock has described as "freezing," so while we wait for the clean up, here's a bit of trivia for you.

It's a big day for Kagiso Rabada, who will play his 50th T20I. He has 54 wickets in this format and is fourth on the list of South Africa's highest wicket-takers. If he takes 10 in this tournament, he will jump to joint-second, where Dale Steyn, who is on commentary, sits.

And if any of you collect player cards, autographed bats or other memorabilia from cricket games, you may be interested in their digital versions. This World Cup, the cricket world is meeting the world of digital collectibles. ESPNcricinfo’s digital collectibles partners FanCraze are allowing fans to pre-buy iconic moments from each match of the World Cup called the Crictos of the Game. We’ll also have a weekly video series here on ESPNcricinfo with our experts picking our favourite moments of the week.

Temba Bavuma called heads and the coin fell on tails. Craig Ervine immediately said he wanted to have a bat, because he feels it's important "to get some runs on the board first." Temba Bavuma wanted to bowl first, so both skippers were happy.

Zimbabwe are unchanged from the XI that beat Scotland and have four seam and three spin options at their disposal.

Zimbabwe: 1 Regis Chakabva (wk), 2 Craig Ervine (capt), 3 Wessly Madhevere, 4 Sean Williams, 5 Sikandar Raza, 6 Milton Shumba, 7 Ryan Burl, 8 Luke Jongwe, 9 Tendai Chatara , 10 Richard Ngarava, 11 Blessing Muzarabani

South Africa also went with a four-pronged pace pack, and just one specialist spinner. There's no Tabraiz Shamsi, with Keshav Maharaj keeping the spin berth. Crucially, there's also no room for Reeza Hendricks, with Bavuma resuming at the top of the order. Tristan Stubbs has been preferred over Heinrich Klaasen and Wayne Parnell is the left-arm allround option ahead of Marco Jansen.

South Africa: : 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Temba Bavuma, 3 Rilee Rossouw 4 Aiden Markram, 5 David Miller, 6 Tristan Stubbs 7 Wayne Parnell, 8 Keshav Maharaj, 9 Anrich Nortje 10 Lungi Ngidi, 11 Kagiso Rabada

Blessed by African rain? Not quite.

We're struggling with the weather here - the Netherlands-Bangladesh game was interrupted - and now the toss has been delayed.

But if you're keen on some visuals of the teams warming up and want to hang around for the match, remember that those of you in the US can watch the game live on ESPN+.