New Zealand vs India, 3rd Test at Wellington, , Apr 03 2009 - Match Result

Aha! more drama. Rain stops play. The covers come on. It's not too heavy, though. It's already slowly clearing, says Martin Crowe. "A passing shower," he adds. Anyway, no play for now.

Simon: "This rain may rob us of the opportunity to see The Phantom bat." You got to get that video Simon.

Nick suggests an interesting reason: "It's so windy out there (while I am not there now, I used to go to school next door) that the umpires can be forgiven for not hearing the best with a couple of these 'non-edge' dismissals, although surely there needs to be referral system in place in future. McCullum's was a huge wicket to be given out for an air-swing."

Suzy Evans: "On a positive note: I take my hat off to the young black caps, they have come so far since the days of Hadlee, Crowe, Snidden, Greatbach etc. Ross Taylor is one attractive player, he is a pleasure to watch, and my gosh, let's give them a chance, they can only get better, those teams are at the top, India, Aussie and SA, are not always gonna be at the top, so go the `BLACK CAPS':)"

Mehul: "NZ cricket team is really very sporty, spirited and very calm natured team unlike other best teams of world. Feels like gentlemen's cricket is still alive.. Kudos to NZ team: You lost this series, but you already won my heart - love and respect!"

Hunt: "I'm a couple of miles from the Basin in the central city...and Martin Crowe is dreaming [ on it being a passing shower]. This will be here for a while."

Subru: "on that Southee dismissal: I believe this happens in Cricket without technology. In the same over of Harbajan, Umpire called not out for LBW shout of Vettori..!"

A 2.45 pm start was announced but as soon as covers went off the rain returned, says our man at the ground Sidharth Monga

The umpires walk out for inspection. It's still drizzling out there and the covers are still on as dark clouds still hover around the Basin Reserve. Many of our NZ fans must be doing a fine rain dance.

Farhan Mirza: "Oh boy.... i do hope the game does continue or else Ishant Sharma will be having a very tough time. Had he only held on to the Iain O'Brian catch off Sachin... The Indians would have probably wrapped this up (No disrespect to Martin, of course!)" .. Bah..! you non-believers... just you wait and watch .. The Legend is going to hit a big six today. I will be back in ten minutes.

Harris: "Sidharth Monga's article yesterday read - "It wouldn't be a good result for Test cricket if the rain arrives with eight New Zealand wickets down.". And the score now is 281/8....hmmm....." He has a fine black tongue, eh?

Timbos Crusaders: "Kiwis look like they are building a good young team. Lets hope they can continue to improve. They have the skill, just need to develop the mental side to produce consistent big scores in test cricket. It was great to see NZ play in a three test series, lets hope we continue to get three test series to help improve the side."

Ilia: "There's a lot of talk about the Legend's outstanding batting in this series(a lofty 4 runs without being dismissed), but someone should mention Iain O'Brien's phenomenal batting. He has posted his high score of 19 earlier in the series, and he looks set to beat it today. PERHAPS PERHAPS, one day he and The Legend will combine for a 100 partnership." Batman and Robin.

Ajay from NZ: "It's sad the summer of cricket is coming to an end. It's been a splendid season. Kudos to all the players. I enjoyed watching India perform, got to meet the players downtown so that was memorable! Shook hands with Sachin! Looking up at the sky here in Auckland, it's all going grey and the clowds are quickly eating up whatever's left of the summer skies. Goodbye blue skies!"

Harry is doing the rain dance: "Just looked at the Rain Radar for Wellington. There is a good amount of rain coming in from the west and looks like it should get heavier! thank the heavens!!"

Hasan Siddiqui: "In my opinion Dhoni should have declared second innings much earlier. Even a target of 550 runs would have been safer for Indians. India can still win this game if they just get a chance to bowl 1 more hour."

Boom: "Batman and Robin." I snorted so violently my nose just went in ! In other things, nice tour, well-behaved players with cordial relationships among them, and good cricket, IOW perfect test match series!"

It's still raining and no game as of now. If there is any news about the game, I will ping it in bold like this. Till then, I am going through the emails and will put them below this message.

Frank Rizzo: "I'm a kiwi but I'd prefer the rain to have stayed away, India have outplayed us comprehensively and deserve to take the series 2-0. It's been great to have a three test series, even if we've battled to be competitive. I'm sure it will help the inexperienced NZ players a lot in the future."

Our readers never get tired of crashing other sites. Ok .. here we go again. Can they tilt the webcam towards er .. never mind ... family site and all ..

Ritesh: " You can Check the live cam pics from wellington weather met service. It looks like there is a fair bit of rain and its quiet windy out there."

For now, Join in for the Series Review with Sambit Bal and Dileep Premachandran.

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The game has been called off New Zealand were eight wickets down but down came the rain and they have secured the draw. India win the series. That's it then. Hang on for match presentation.

Man of match: Gautam: "It was one of the biggest challenges in my first foreign tour. When you are playing with legends of the game, it takes lots of pressure of your shoulders. You can just go there, relax and play your own game."

Vettori: India were 200 odd for six after we took a gamble to bowl was good. But it didn't go too well after that. The bowlers did a pretty good job throughout the series to take the workload on bowling these pitches against Indian batsmen." He also praised Jesse Ryder's batting.

Dhoni: we performed as a team. We didn't rely on a single batsman. Gautam kept on improving. Sachin, Rahul, Laxman all performed. Also, the lower-order batsmen did well. The pitches were good to bat on. There was some thing for the bowlers but nothing compared to 2003 series. THe bowlers had to hit the right line and length and use the breeze. Some of our fast bowlers struggled against the breeze here but we saw Harbhajan Singh coming and bowling very well against the breeze. The way the senior batsmen have guided the younger batsmen have really helped. When you go off on the second day, they {senior batsmen] know what's going to happen on fifty day and how to plan. You can't bank on weather here. When you declared with less runs, the way of the opposition batting changes. We were hoping for at least 110 overs but we can't do anything. There is no regret. We would have like to win 2 -0 but that's the way it goes."

For now, Join in for the Series Review with Sambit Bal and Dileep Premachandran. Thanks for all the mails through this Test match. It was fun bringing you this series. On behalf of our scorers - Raghav and Sanjay, this is Sriram Veera, signing off. Alas, we won't get another sighting of The Phantom. Pity.

Join the Fantasy game before you go offline. There's the regular Fantasy game where you can manage your playing eleven, and there's also a Pick 'Em Fantasy where all you have to do is predict the winners of the matches and see if you're more accurate than the others. Prizes up for grabs in both games, so enter now. Click here . Good bye and good luck!

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4:20 pm local time: The umpires will have another inspection, perhaps the final one, at 5:00 pm. That's 40 minutes from now. See you then.

Here is a gem. From the archives of Cricinfo XI - The great tailenders. Have a look at the Wallies of the willow .It was inspired by The Legend's pair. So his name won't be there as he is already in the hall of fame.

Praveer: "Hey, play a mean belated april fools day prank. Write in bold something like: Rain has stopped. It's sunny. Not a spec of cloud in sight. Players are out with their sunglasses with heavy sunblock on. Game resumes. Should be fun!" Yeah right! Last time, we messed up with the bowler's names for a over, my birth and lineage was questioned. Fun indeed! Bah..!

4:00 pm local time: It's still bucketing down. Nothing to do but wait. Next update at 4:30 pm. I will leave you with couple of mails.

Steve with the weather report: "To all watching the commentary online - I live 1 minute from the ground and there is no doubt WHATSOEVER that play is finished for the day. It's a wellington special out there! Poor luck for India but perhaps next time posting a chasing team 600+ when they made 200 or so in the first innings was a little over the top..."

Avanti has a fact-trivia for us: "The first testicular guard was used in cricket in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. It took 100 years for men to realize that the brain is also important!" The species has to continue even if produces mad people. I think the priority is perfectly fine!

Rajesh: "World's Greatest Tailend XI - Chris Phantom Martin, Courtney Walsh, Glenn McGrath, B S Chandrashekar, M Muralitharan, Dilip Doshi, Venkatesh Prasad, Monty Panesar, Danish Kaneria..." Nine there and Muralitharan doesn't fit in there, me thinks. Anyway see you lot in another 30 minutes.

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3:20 pm: "It's absolutely pouring down now, says Sid Monga, our man at the venue."

I will be back at 4:00 pm local time with the next update.

3:05 pm local time It's still raining and no game as of now. If there is any news about the game, I will ping it in bold like this. Till then, I am going through the emails and will keep adding them below this.

While you guys wait, check our new Fantasy game . There's the regular Fantasy game where you can manage your playing eleven, and there's also a Pick 'Em Fantasy where all you have to do is predict the winners of the matches and see if you're more accurate than the others. Prizes up for grabs in both games, so enter now. Click here

Please read Sid Monga's diary titled Encyclopedia Battleshipica It has lovely tidbits about the big fat New Zealand cricket book and on Eric Tindill, the oldest surviving Test cricketer.

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New Ball has been taken as the rain drops have now collected together into a drizzle

To add more drama... rain drops fall down.

on that Southee dismissal: Snickometer shows now that the sound was bat on pad! It doesn't show any edge off the bat.