ENG vs NZ 1st Test: Play called off on Day 3 without a ball being bowled

The third day's play of the first Test match between England and New Zealand has been called off due to rain at the Lord's Cricket Ground in London on Friday. The forecast for the first two hours wasn't great and light rain started at around 2.50 PM IST (10:20 local time).

With the better forecast from the afternoon session and the diminishing rain it looked possible that some play will take place, however, the drizzle didn't stop, which made it impossible for the groundsmen to make some play possible as the rain had to complete die down for them to do their work and make the ground and pitch appropriate for the play.

The match was poised nicely as England came back after losing two early wickets on the back of an unbeaten partnership of 93 runs between opening batsman Rory Burns and skipper Joe Root. Burns was unbeaten on 59 while Root had played a measured hand of 42*.

Earlier, debutant Devon Conway's double hundred helped New Zealand get to a score of 378. The visitors looked set to get to a mammoth total before pacer Mark Wood inspired the hosts' comeback into the game taking three wickets in the morning session pegging the high-flying Kiwis back.

Conway continued on his merry run and despite no other batsman apart from Henry Nicholls offering some resistance, Conway reached his double century and became the first batsman in history to score a double century on Test debut at the Lord's Cricket Stadium.

England lost opener Dom Sibley and Zack Crawley cheaply to Kyle Jamieson and Tim Southee but staged a comeback with a 222-ball stand.