1st ODI: New Zealand v Australia at Wellington, 16 Feb 2000

Ball-by-Ball Commentary

       Welcome to the WestpacTrust Stadium in Wellington for this, the
        first of six One-Day Internationals in the National Bank Series
        between New Zealand and Australia
       the bad news is the weather in Wellington for the past few days has
        been poor, at best, and right at the moment the rain is falling
        rather steadily
       in the morning it was raining a fair bit but stopped nearer to
        lunch time and had held off but for the odd spit until just 10
        minutes before the scheduled starting time of 2pm
       (however it was already clear that play wasn't going to get
        underway on time anyway, as the outfield is wet and the covers
        have to be dealt with)
       the rules in place for this series stipulate that if we don't get a
        game in today, reduced and/or Duckworth/Lewis-affected or
        otherwise, we will be back tomorrow (as a day game) starting from
        scratch
       the ICC have ruled that the carry-over rules in force for the 1999
        World Cup and a modified version of those which New Zealand agreed
        to with the West Indies in their prior home series in January are
        unable to be used for this series
       right now a patient but relatively noisy crowd of roughly 3000 are
        waiting in the stands, mostly high up (only a portion of the
        symmetrical stadium is covered by the roof), as the groundsmen do
        general tidy up work, and running the super-sopper around
       the outfield, the likelihood is we'll be waiting at least another
        hour until there's any thought of a start, but we'll keep you
        posted
       in the meantime, those of you waiting for a start online may want
        to check out CricInfo's own fantasy competition for this series,
        including the ODIs and Tests, by clicking on the link in the top
        frame (entry is absolutely free)
       it's now nearing 2:30pm and it's just very lightly raining again,
        not visible to the naked eye from a distance
       but it hasn't deterred the umpires from at least having another
        inspection at 3pm
       the umpires have come out and made an inspection and have decided
        that the bowlers' run-ups are too wet and pose a threat to safety
        so have abandoned the day's play
       the crowd, which has built to around 5000 sent around a rather
        large boo, equally as strong as the giant cheer for that of the
        covers being lifted earlier
       news is that the match will start as a day/nighter again tomorrow,
        weather-permitting
       typically enough, soon after things have been killed for the day,
        the sun appears in full force and the horizon clears considerably,
        Wellington has been jinxed by the weather gods when ODI cricket
        comes to town of late
       sadly that's all we have to report from the WestpacTrust Stadium
        here in Wellington, join us at 2pm NZT (0100 GMT) tomorrow and
        fingers crossed the news will be better then, good afternoon until
        then

Match State: Rain abandons play, restart on reserve day at 2pm (0100 GMT)

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Date-stamped : 16 Feb2000 - 14:23