As New Zealand Cricket turf manager Karl Johnson and his crew watched the rain bucket down during the opening ceremony of the CricInfo Women's World Cup on Tuesday they set themselves a target.

To make sure the tournament's first scheduled game between Australia and New Zealand started.

"Everyone was saying when they saw the rain that there was no way the game would be played.

"But we wanted the game to be started because it was such an important game for the tournament and it was Australia-New Zealand," Johnson said.

"We heard all the talk but had a little meeting among the three of us and decided if we could get the match started we would be legends and we would work through the night if it needed."

Johnson's night didn't get off the best of starts. He was required to attend a meeting 20km away in Christchurch and when coming out, dressed in good suit and tie, he found he had left his carlights on and his battery was flat.

Fortunately, a friend happened to drive by and was able to jumper lead the car to get it started.

Then it was all on at Lincoln.

"We saw the water was building up where it drained off the covers so we concentrated on that to try and minimise the damage it could do.

"I felt sorry for the England team as their quarters were closest to where we were working and the supa-soppa is quite a noisy machine. We did ask the England girls to bring us out a coffee at 1pm and 2pm, but we haven't seen it yet," he said.

The ground crew worked in three-hour shifts through some horrendous rain.

Johnson said he was wearing three pairs of trousers to try and keep warm.

"The vehicle had a roof on it, but it was no use because the rain was being driven in sideways and I was absolutely sodden.

"It got to the stage where we thought, 'What are we doing this for?', but we kept at it.

"We knew that if the game didn't eventuate we had at least done our best to get it started," he said.

"And when it did start, we were absolutely delighted."

Johnson added that one of New Zealand Cricket's mottos, "Pushing the boundaries" was on his mind constantly.

© CricInfo