Rain thwarts Anderson fitness test

James Anderson's scheduled fitness test became a victim of the weather when Lancashire's Friends Life t20 fixture against Worcestershire at New Road was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Recalled to the England squad earlier in the day, the 28-year-old seam bowler was hoping to confirm his recovery from a side strain by bowling four overs for his county.

But a steady downpour set in at dawn and with up to an inch of rain forecast for the Worcester area, it was no surprise when umpires Jeff Evans and David Millns called the game off at 2.30pm. Having missed the Lord's Test against Sri Lanka because of his injury, Anderson will now be without competitive match practice before the selectors have to decide on the final XI for the third and final match in the series at the Rose Bowl on Thursday.

For Worcestershire the loss of a crowd-pulling fixture was another setback, coming on top of the complete washout a week earlier in the their opening Twenty20 home game against Durham. The only other year in which they lost two home matches in the competition was 2007, when they had to leave New Road in the second half of the summer because of flooding at their headquarters.