First to lose his wicket was Daan van Bunge forcing and edging a back foot shot from Jason Gillespie that got up and left the right-hander to be caught at first slip for one and Netherlands eight for one in the second over.

Gillespie got rid of Bas Zuiderent in the sixth over when the batsman tried to make room to the on side and found the short ball following him to glove to Maher keeping wicket. Out for five and Netherlands 18 for two.

With the bowlers being to restricted to seven overs each, and one bowler with eight, Andrew Symonds and Darren Lehmann were introduced into the attack as early as the seventh and eight over.

A couple of edges over and wide of the slips helped the Netherlands cause before Luuk van Troost, trying his luck once too often, spliced a lofted drive off Lehmann that looped up to a deep mid off. Van Troost had scored 23 off 33 balls including three fours and Netherlands were 42 for three.

The 50 came up in the 12th over and included five fours.

The fourth wicket was down on 59 when Lehmann had Klaas-Jan van Noortwijk playing over a well flighted ball that struck the back knee and trapped him leg before for 13.

The first six of the day came off the bat of Tim de Leede dancing down and lofting Lehmann over the long off fence. His joy was short lived edging Andy Bichel to Maher for 24 and the Dutch now 85/5 in the 22nd over.

The three overs in the field had accrued 14 runs to the Australia total (123/2) with Martyn on 46 and Lehmann on 5.

The second interruption of 86 minutes further reduced the limit to 36 overs.

Martyn went to his 50 in 53 balls and 63 minutes striking five fours as he looked to up the run rate with only eight overs left in the innings.

The 150 was up in the 32nd over having taken 121 minutes and included 15 fours.

The third, and fastest 50-run partnership of the innings was posted in 57 balls and 31 minutes of which Lehmann had contributed 21 runs.

At the completion of the 36 overs Australia had totalled 170/2 with Martyn on 67 and Lehmann on 29.

Duckworth/Lewis calculates the Netherlands target as 198 off 36 overs.

The Netherlands bowlers acquitted themselves very well in restricting Australia to a total of under five runs to the over. Even with the reduction in overs and with Australia only two wickets down, they maintained a good line and should be more than pleased with their effort.

Keeping an upright seam Lefebvre consistently beat the outside of the bat with his seamers and was rewarded with figures of 0/13 in his opening seven over spell.

Edgar Schiferli was slightly wayward spending most of the time attacking the leg stump and paying for it in going at six runs per over.

Tim de Leede broke the opening partnership when he pushed one across Maher who edged to the solitary slip for 26 and Australia one down on 52.

The 50 partnership had come up off 68 balls in 40 minutes and included four boundaries.

Hayden and Damien Martyn moved the score along to 103 when De Leede struck again with Hayden clipping one off his toes for deep mid wicket to take an easy catch to get rid of the danger man for 33.

The 100 had come up in the 23rd over with the second 50 partnership coming up in 58 balls.

At the end of the 25th over the rain came down again. This time the rain fell hard enough for the players to leave the field with Martyn on 37, Darren Lehmann on one and Australia 109 for two.

The toss was won by Netherlands, who decided to bowl first and make full use of the overcast conditions. At the toss Roland Lefebvre said, “We will not learn anything in the change rooms and want to get out in the middle to play, that is what we are here for and looking forward to.”

With the game due to start a hour late it has been reduced to a 47-over match.

Australia team: ML Hayden, +JP Maher, *RT Ponting, DR Martyn, DS Lehmann, MG Bevan, A Symonds, IJ Harvey, AJ Bichel, JN Gillespie, GD McGrath.

Netherlands team: LP van Troost, DLS van Bunge, B Zuiderent, KJJ van Noortwijk, TBM de Leede, RH Scholte, JF Kloppenburg, +J Smits, *RP Lefebvre, E Schiferli, JJ Esmeijer.

Three days of rain and prospects of it continuing today means that the players will have to wait until 14:15 local time before the match officials can make a decision to call the match off as a no-result.

The new drainage system put in place before the World Cup should be able to drain away any access water on the outfield provided the rain stops. At the moment they also have a helicopter hovering over the pitch to assist in blowing away any additional wet spots.

At the moment there is no word on the teams and the prospects of play starting on time are remote.

Australia team: (from) MG Bevan, AJ Bichel, +AC Gilchrist, JN Gillespie, IJ Harvey, ML Hayden, GB Hogg, B Lee, DS Lehmann, GD McGrath, JP Maher, DR Martyn, *RT Ponting, A Symonds.

Netherlands team: (from) Adeel Raja, TBM de Leede, JJ Esmeijer, JF Kloppenburg, *RP Lefebvre, HJC Mol, RG Nijman, E Schiferli, RH Scholte, +J Smits, NA Statham, DLS van Bunge, KJJ van Noortwijk, LP van Troost, B Zuiderent.