By Jonathan Agnew BBC cricket correspondent

Cricket continues to find ways to shoot itself in the foot.

At 1705 BST, when light rain forced the players from the field, the announcement echoed around Headingley that the match had been abandoned.

Vaughan shakes hands with Zimbabwe fielders at the end

Ten minutes later, as thousands of bewildered spectators trooped out of the ground, the rain stopped.

The umpires could not be blamed: they merely implemented the regulations.

But at a time when new measures - such as Twenty20 - are being implemented to introduce new faces to cricket, days like this do nothing to promote the sport.

The reason for the early cut-off is to allow a minimum of 25 overs to be bowled by both teams.

If this was a winner-take-all situation, I can understand the need for that length of a game, but we are in a triangular tournament in which each team plays the others three times.

In this situation, matches should be reduced to 10 overs per side, if necessary.

Twenty20 already runs the risk of making 50 overs matches seem boring in comparison.

And it is clear that these longer games need greater flexibility if they are to continue to be popular.

As for the cricket itself, Zimbabwe had England on the back foot after taking four cheap wickets.

Repairing

From 32-4, England had some rebuilding to do and Michael Vaughan and Anthony McGrath were busily repairing the damage when the shower arrived.

The result improves Zimbabwe's prospects of reaching the final.

It is now crucial that England beat Zimbabwe when they meet for the last time at Bristol on Sunday.