Darren Gough's first over to begin England's four-day tour match against Queensland today was finished 25 minutes after it began. Play was interrupted twice in the over - once as Matthew Hayden retired hurt with a broken finger, the other as an official drove to the nearest hardware shop to buy sawdust to place in the bowlers runups. There was none available at the ground.

Despite early forecasts of rain at Cazaly's Australian Football Park, Cairns, this morning, play began on time. England had rested Graham Thorpe and made Angus Fraser twelfth man, the injured Ben Hollioake joining Alex Tudor, Peter Such and Warren Hegg as the other tourists not included in the eleven. For Queensland, a rare chance for Ian Healy to lead his state side, and ex-Gloucestershire batsman Andrew Symonds in the eleven having made his Australian international debut in Lahore on Tuesday.

Alec Stewart won the toss and sent Queensland into bat. On the second ball of the game, Matthew Hayden, no longer a leading contender for Australian selection, was struck on the middle finger of his left hand by a ball from Darren Gough. He was forced to retire hurt and taken to hospital, where xrays revealed a fracture.

Three balls later, Gough slipped in his runup because of the damp surface. Umpires Tony McQuillan and Simon Taufel called to the pavillion for sawdust. But there was a problem. There wasn't any.

Play was held up as a ground official headed into downtown Cairns to buy some sawdust at the nearest hardware store. After a 17 minute delay the run-ups were repaired and play resumed. At 10.25 am the umpires called ``over'' for the first time in the game.

Once play got under way again, Queensland lost their first two wickets cheaply, Jimmy Maher for 3 and Stuart Law for 10. At lunch Queensland were 48 for 2 from 25 overs. With the loss of Martin Love (29) and Andrew Symonds (10) Queensland were 69 for 4. After a recovery by Ian Healy (57) and Geoff Foley (64*), Queensland finished the day on 193 for 8 when rain and bad light came seven overs before the scheduled end. Robert Croft took three late wickets to have the figures of 3/56. Gough has two wickets, Mullally, Cork and Headley one each.

Written for CricInfo365 by Rick Eyre (rick@cricinfo.com)