England lost by Duckworth-Lewis as their World Twenty20 Group One game with New Zealand in Chittagong was abandoned because of a thunderstorm.
Put in, England made 172-6 with Moeen Ali firing 36 in 23 balls and sharing 72 in seven overs with Michael Lumb (36), while Jos Buttler added 32.
Brendon McCullum hit a six to put the Kiwis ahead of the rate at 52-1 after five overs when the storm arrived.
New Zealand were awarded victory by nine runs under the D/L method.
It was a galling way to start the tournament for England, who posted a competitive total and restricted New Zealand to 31-1 after four overs to be ahead on points in boxing parlance.
ive overs needed to be bowled in the second innings to constitute a match and that fifth over was not only completed but brought about a complete contrast in the outcome.
Astute skipper McCullum, conscious of the dramatic flashes of lightning moving ever closer to the stadium, stepped down the pitch to hit counterpart Stuart Broad for six over mid-wicket, then edged over slip for four more before hitting the final ball of the over down the ground for another maximum.
After familiar feelings of dread at 1-1 from one over, left-handers Ali and Lumb had invigorated England with some delightfully clean hitting on both sides of the wicket.
Ali was particularly destructive with a spell of four fours and a six in six balls faced.
But he picked out deep mid-wicket in the eighth over and Lumb was superbly caught by Corey Anderson at third man in the next.
Buttler kept the scoreboard moving, while Ravi Bopara, Chris Jordan and Tim Bresnan all struck sixes in cameo innings, but the torrential storm thwarted prospects of an intriguing finale.
England will hope for better fortune in their next match, also under the floodlights, against Sri Lanka at the same venue on Thursday.