Torrential downpours marred today’s opening day of Cup Match at Wellington Oval.

Only 6.2 overs of play were possible because of the inclement weather. Somerset managed to snatch a couple of St George’s wickets before another shower sent the players off the field for good with the home side ending the day’s play on 27 for two.

“You can’t control mother nature and it’s unfortunate for the people that spend so much money for this occasion that they never got to see a lot of cricket played today,” Ryan Steede, the St George’s coach, said.

The start of tomorrow’s second day of play has been brought forward a half-hour from 10am to 9.30, with the mandatory 20 overs also pushed back from 6.30pm to 7pm in an effort to make up for lost time.

“The game has been extended so it’s almost like two days squeezed in one,” Steede added. “The forecast is looking like good and hopefully we do get good weather.”

The floodgates opened after Somerset captain Jordan DeSilva won the coin toss and promptly sent St George’s in to bat, washing out the entire morning’s session and a huge chunk of the afternoon’s session.

Play finally began at 3.08pm with Malachi Jones making the breakthrough on the penultimate ball of the first over of the St George’s innings.

Opener Sinclair Smith never looked comfortable facing the new ball and it came as no real surprise when he was pinned in front of his stumps offering no shot to a Jones delivery pitched outside offstump that jagged back off the seam.

Somerset, the champions, struck another body blow in the next over when Treadwell Gibbons virtually threw his wicket away attempting an unnecessary run.

Unlike fellow opener Smith, the left-handed Gibbons looked to be in control, driving Greg Maybury through the covers for a boundary and playing Jones equally as comfortably off his pads.

However, an innings that promised much was cut short when Gibbons took on the arm of Tre Manders fielding at midwicket and was brilliantly run out by a direct throw at the stumps.

Gibbons’ dismissal put the hosts further on the back foot and they were fortunate not suffer more damage when Manders dropped Macai Simmons, the St George’s captain, at extra cover off Maybury.

Simmons went for the big shots early, smashing two boundaries off Maybury’s second over.

He added 22 runs with Onias Bascome, one of three recalled players in the St George’s team this year, before play was halted at 3.39 because of another rain delay and never resumed.

Simmons is unbeaten on 12 and Bascome on 8 for St George’s.

Jones, who first spell lasted three overs, has figures of one for three and Maybury none for 20 off three overs.

First change Kamau Leverock, one of two recalls in Somerset’s team this year, conceded two runs with the only two deliveries he sent down after replacing Jones at the western end before the heavens opened up.