England captain Harry Brook described the rain-reduced T20 between England and South Africa in Cardiff as a “shambles of a night”.

A delayed start until 20:50 BST saw the match reduced to nine overs a side and the tourists reached 97-5 after 7.5 overs before another downpour, which gave England a revised target of 69 from five.

The hosts fell short on 54-5 to go 1-0 down in the three-match series, though Brook felt there was nothing to glean from the contest.

“They got nine overs, we got five overs. You can’t take much from it,” said Brook.

“It was a bit of a shambles. It was a long, long day but I don’t think we need to make any excuses up.

“We probably didn’t execute as well as we should have done with bat and ball but it’s hard when you only bat for five overs.”

The original playing conditions stated there would be a 2.4 over powerplay and that four bowlers could bowl a maximum of two overs each and one bowler could bowl one, which curiously did not change once England’s target was adjusted.

Earlier, England made a late change to their team to remove Jofra Archer from the XI considering the conditions, and he was replaced by Luke Wood who took 2-22.

“It would have been stupid to play him with the amount of cricket we’ve got coming up,” Brook added.

“If he’d have gone out and done what Adam Hose did in The Hundred and broken his leg or whatever, that would have been a shambles.”

Archer has been reintroduced to international cricket this summer with his first Test in four years and the hope that he will be fit for the winter’s Ashes in Australia.

Brook would not be drawn on whether the game should have gone ahead, adding that it was simply “up to the umpires”.

The series continues at Old Trafford on Friday, where there is also a mixed forecast.