4:26pm Right. That will be all from us for this game. Plenty of action still pencilled in for the day, with the Birmingham Phoenix (Men) taking on the Trent Rockets (Men) at Edgbaston, provided the rain does not play spoilsport again. In Manchester, they did manage to get in 80 balls before the players walked off. Until next time, this is me (Shashwat) saying goodbye on behalf of Binoy and everyone else at ESPNcricinfo. Take care!
4:24pm It's official, folks. The match has been called off. The rain never really seemed to relent enough to get this game closer to a proper start time and the match officials have now finally pulled the plug on this. A bit of a shame for those who had or were planning to turn up at Edgbaston to enjoy a Saturday afternoon of exciting cricket.
4:03pm Uh-oh, a few umbrellas have just come up in the stands, and there is no movement (neither from the super-soppers or from the ground staff) on the playing area as we speak, indicating that the rain might just have returned. Stick around, we might get an official word (either way) pretty soon.
3:50pm We will have a pitch inspection at 4:15pm. Provided, of course, there is no further rain.
3:45pm Looks like a pitch inspection was being carried out about ten minutes ago. No updates so far on how that went, though. We wait...
3:39pm Good news, folks. The rain seems to have eased up, at least according to this tweet and the mop-up operation is underway. We still have a little more than an hour to get a 25-balls-a-side game in.
3pm A couple of super-soppers are in operation at Edgbaston but the covers are still firmly in place. There are a few puddles on the outfield too and those will take some drying. Stay tuned for further updates.
2:39pm The latest possible starting time for a 25-balls-per-side game is 4:42pm. That means we have a little more than two hours for the rain to clear and for the mop-up to be completed.
2:18pm Needless to say that the start of the match has officially been delayed. Now, we wait...
1:52pm For those wondering, the rain is still falling at Edgbaston and the toss has officially been delayed (no prizes for guessing that, though).
Over in Manchester, however, the prospect of play is quite real; in fact, we are on course for an on-time start. While we wait for the rain to relent in Birmingham, join Ekanth as he brings to you all the updates from Old Trafford.
1:40pm It's been an hour since this was put up on Twitter, but fair to say that the picture looks grim...
The other thing that ties these two sides together (so far at least) is how they struggled with the bat in their respective opening games. That, though, was not for a lack of firepower, especially in the Rockets' case, considering they boast the likes of Bryony Smith, Harmanpreet Kaur, Lizelle Lee and skipper Nat Sciver-Brunt. What was an issue was how they utilized those resources, with Kaur and NSB walking out to bat a little too late against Southern Brave.
The Rockets have now had time to reassess after the events of Trent Bridge, and they would hope that they can stumble upon the right combination that optimises their resources and makes their batting unit as formidable as it seems on paper.
The Phoenix, meanwhile, stuttered and stumbled their way to 110 a couple of days ago - a score that was hunted down with ease by the Superchargers. None of their batters apart from Sophie Devine got going, and that is something they would want to rectify at the earliest. Amy Jones, Eve Jones and Erin Burns are capable batters and the sooner they can hit their straps, alongside Devine, the quicker the Phoenix can get back to competing for the top four, akin to last season.
1:30pm Hello and welcome to ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball drop-by-drop coverage of the Women's Hundred. The games (and the rain) are coming thick and fast, and provided the rain stays away, two teams yet to open their account, will clash against each other at Edgbaston.
The hosts Birmingham Phoenix were comfortably beaten by the Northern Superchargers in their first fixture while the Trent Rockets suffered an opening-day defeat to the Southern Brave at Trent Bridge.
