England v South Africa, 2012

At Cardiff, August 24. No result. Toss: South Africa. One-day international debut: D. Elgar.

Fittingly for a series that would never escape the shadow of Kevin Pietersen's will-he-won't-he circus, the absent batsman chose the day of its opening match to announce he would be in Sri Lanka for the upcoming World Twenty20 as a TV pundit. There would have been precious little for him to analyse here as the miserable weather struck again. No fewer than six inspections were made, but play did not get under way until 3pm, by when the game had been reduced to 24 overs a side. Only 5.3 were possible, and Bell played a little gem of an innings, hitting 26 not out in 18 balls, including two sweet sixes off Morkel. Since beating Australia in July, England had reached the top of the ICC's one-day rankings, a fraction ahead of South Africa, following the annual update that cleared out old results from the calculations. The lack of a result maintained that No. 1 ranking - for the time being at least.

Attendance: 13,992.