New Zealand may have lost four hours of play in their attempt to beat Zimbabwe today but they are going to try and make up some of the lost time by increasing their over rate on the last two days of the National Bank Test at the Basin Reserve.

If the weather gods do their bit and allow play on the remaining two days to start an hour early at 11am then two of the hours will be made up.

In reply to New Zealand's 487/7, Zimbabwe were 48/2 with Gavin Rennie 20 not out and Alistair Campbell 15 not out.

After play ended 90 minutes early due to bad light, Black Caps skipper Stephen Fleming said that the side's two spinners can expect a heavy load as New Zealand attempt to pick up the remaining 18 wickets for victory.

"We're going to bowl a lot of balls at them with the spinners so chances are going to be created and, ideally, we're going to bowl more than the quota," Fleming said.

New Zealand's hard-nosed approach in the quest for victory was evident when Fleming revealed he was prepared to bat well into the third day and score 530-550 runs, but bad weather forced a reconsideration of options.

Only 29 overs were possible due to two rain interruptions and bad light.

New Zealand's choice of tactics surprised no one on the small piece of the Sahara Desert that is the wicket at the Basin Reserve. Off-spinner Paul Wiseman was in action as early as the eighth over and by the 17th over he was working in tandem with leg-spinner Brooke Walker.

Fleming said: "We're happy to have 480 on the board. "Paul Wiseman bowled beautifully into the gusty wind, his control was outstanding. Brooke Walker was a different type of role, there's not as many footmarks where he was operating.

"There is a lot of spin, but it's slow and we have to work out the pace that is most effective on that wicket and keep chipping away.

"We'd like to get more footmarks, not in any devious type of way. But just having guys operating at one end can create opportunities later in the match. We'll be working at that early, sacrificing half an hour to an hour's play to create something for later in the match," he said.

Fleming has another string to his bow, an unexpected but valuable string given the absence through injury of bowlers like Chris Cairns, Dion Nash or Geoff Allott.

Chris Martin, in his first international outing on home turf, generated genuine pace despite the slow wicket and caused problems for the batsmen. He struck the first blows for New Zealand and his dismissal of Guy Whittall highlighted his worth to the side.

A fast yorker cut neatly between Whittall's bat and pad and took middle stump. Eight balls later Martin added Stuart Carlisle's scalp to his belt when the batsman lobbed a ball to short cover where Matt Horne parried the ball up and then had to turn around and race to catch it.

Martin completed the act during a spell of four successive maidens, having earlier conceded six and nine runs off his second and fourth overs respectively.

"I've been very impressed with him through the South African tour and guys who have seen him on that tour have seen something that will bode well for New Zealand's future and he's continued here today," Fleming said.

"He's got bounce, genuine pace and on a very slow wicket he created problems. We like what we see, a lot."

Earlier New Zealand had batted on in two two-over bursts between showers. They added 12 runs before the rain delays forced them to declare. In that time, Adam Parore was able to post the 14th half century of his career.

The only wicket to fall was Brooke Walker, holing out to Henry Olonga at mid-off from Bryan Strang's bowling to give Strang his third wicket for 116 runs.

It was deserved reward for Strang who finished the day one short of claiming 50 wickets in Test cricket. Strang spent much of the first two days trucking into the wind, although his last wicket came when having the luxury of the wind at his back.

The strongest gusts recorded in Wellington during the day were 115km per hour.

Ironically, when New Zealand came out to field the wind fell away but by 7pm it was blowing hard again.

© CricInfo