Brett Lee’s pursuit of Glenn McGrath’s record for the most one-day international wickets for Australia has been stalled by the fickle weather in boggy Belfast.

The speedster made a stunning start to his United Kingdom tour by bowling captain William Porterfield (0) and Ed Joyce (0) with the first and third deliveries of the rain-affected contest.

Lee (2-10) only bowled three overs with the home side 3-36 off 10.4 overs at the Civil Service Cricket Club when showers arrived and eventually forced the match to be abandoned.

The scalps put Lee just one behind McGrath’s record of 380 one-day international wickets for Australia.

Fellow fast bowler Pat Cummins (1-11 off three overs) neatly summed up Lee’s opening over.

“That was ridiculous. I have not seen a start like that to a game like that,” Cummins said.

“I was not sure if I was even going to get a bowl there.”

Lee, who instantly found his rhythm under the heavy cloud cover, was not happy to be replaced by Ben Hilfenhaus for the seventh over of the match.

However, captain Michael Clarke had to ensure the Tasmanian found some form before the weather turned after an ordinary first couple of overs.

Australia have a final warm-up game against Essex in Chelmsford on Tuesday before the opening match of a best-of-five series against England starting on June 29 at Lord’s.

After Australia sent the home side in, Lee was spot on from his opening delivery with the ball swinging back in and knocking back the Irish skipper’s off stump.

The New South Welshman had a confident lbw appeal turned down from the very next ball with the delivery looking to be sliding past Joyce’s leg stump.

However, that late movement had thrown Joyce, the left-hander playing inside the very next ball that crashed into his off stump.

Teenager Cummins enjoyed his first outing for Australia since his storming performances in South Africa in November.

He collected the wicket of Paul Stirling (24) with Clarke taking a stunning one-handed diving catch to his right at first slip.