The Wisden Bulletin
by Wisden staff
Wednesday, December 19, 2001

Heavy rain washed out play in the first Test at Hamilton for the second day running, reducing the match to just three days.

After Tuesday's washout, prospects looked brighter on Wednesday. Bangladesh's captain Khaled Mashud had won the toss and elected to field first but less than 15 minutes before the scheduled start drizzle began to fall, soon giving way to heavy rain. Several inspections were made but each time the groundstaff began mopping up the rain returned, and play was eventually abandoned for the day shortly after 5pm. Bangladesh made one change to the side who lost heavily in the warm-up match at Auckland, left-arm spinner Enamul Hoque being replaced by Masrafee bin Murtoza who is back after a groin injury.

New Zealand's only worry was Craig McMillan, who was involved in a car accident outside the ground on Tuesday. He was passed fit after X-rays on an injured finger revealed no fracture. McMillan was about to climb out of a taxi when it was hit by another vehicle.

New Zealand 1 Mark Richardson, 2 Lou Vincent, 3 Mathew Sinclair, 4 Stephen Fleming (capt), 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Chris Cairns, 8 Adam Parore (wk), 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Chris Martin. Bangladesh 1 Al Sahariar Rokon, 2 Aminul Islam, 3 Habibul Bashar, 4 Javed Omar, 5 Khaled Mahmud, 6 Manjural Islam, 7 Masrafee bin Murtoza, 8 Khaled Mashud (capt/wk), 9 Mohammad Ashraful, 10 Mohammad Sharif, 11 Sanwar Hossain.

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd