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)