Sri Lanka vs New Zealand, 5th ODI at Hambantota, , Nov 12 2012 - Ball by Ball Commentary

8.50pm Still raining, the whole ground is covered. Time for the presentation, indoors of course.

BJ Watling has been named Man of the Series: "I'm reasonably happy with the form I'm in. We bowled very well today and fielded well. I'm looking forward to the next series. I'm going home to play some first-class cricket, and it'll be a good opportunity to get a few runs and catches as well."

Ross Taylor: "The bowlers pitched the ball up and gave it a chance. We knew the rain was going to be around. Hopefully we can have a good couple of days off and look ahead to the Tests. We need to work on all three facets of the game, me as a captain I need to toss a bit better. We made some improvements and we need to get better to repay our fans back home. Today's a good start. Test cricket is the ultimate, we've got seven or eight guys coming over. Hopefully the weather plays its part, it hasn't been raining as much as during the night."

Mahela Jayawardene collects the series trophy: "We just had to scrap our way through this series and win crucial situations. Everyone did their job. We still need to improve but we're working hard. The guys were pretty down after the T20 World Cup, and everydone did a tremendous job in lifting themselves up. Looking forward to the Test series now. We haven't played Test cricket for some time now, we'll have six to seven guys coming into that set-up. We'll try to be as consistent as possible, our ODI and T20 has been pretty good. In the last three to four months, we've discovered a few good, talented players and there's a lot of work for them to do as well. We have a break after the Australia tour and I'll have a chat with the selectors then." Hmm, the last one's presumably about his captaincy.

Well, that's it from us here. Thanks for tuning in and let's hope the weather wreck the Tests as it has done with the games so far this tour. Cheers.

It's been a disappointing tour so far, with each of the six games affected by rain. It's been frustrating for the teams as well as those who've tuned in on TV or the web. The first Test begins in five days' time in Galle - what can we expect then? Thanks for sending us your feedback. I'll stick around to see if there's a presentation ceremony of some kind, given it's the end of the series. Will get you any updates from that as and when.

8.25pm Folks, after a wait of three hours and 40 minutes, I have the unfortunate responsibility of letting you know that the game has been called off. New Zealand will be cursing their luck. The series stays 3-0 in favour of Sri Lanka, and the visitors are still searching for that elusive ODI win.

8.05pm More rain in Hambantota, it's got heavier we hear. So it's more or less over we can reckon.

7.55pm Just waiting for confirmation from the ground, some murmurs around that it's started raining again. Yes, I'm afraid the news is true, the covers are coming back on, folks. Don't think there's much life left in this game now.

Manoj Ridimahaliyadda nominates Duckworth and Lewis as Men of the Series, and he's not the only one making that suggestion. So, all six games so far this series - the one T20 and these five ODIs - have been hit by rain.

7.25pm A lot of mopping up happening, but any more rain, we can suspect, before the inspection is likely to ensure a washout.

7.00pm Make of this what you will, Roshan Abeysinghe says on Twitter that there'll be an inspection at 8.30pm. That's an hour and a half. Remember, the cut-off for a 20-over game is 9.45pm. So there must be a huge amount of water collected around the ground.

Mark: "Siddhartha, is this your first full series of drop-by-drop coverage of rain? Do you think that it will catch on as an alternative to boring cricket?" Absolutely, especially the feedback that comes with the commentary.

6.55pm More encouraging news. The covers are coming off. There's some water that's accumulated near the bowlers' run-ups, so that area's being dried. The interruption started two hours and fifteen minutes ago.

6.30pm Roshan Abeysinghe gives some good news on Twitter - the showers have relented, but "there is plenty of water on the covers and outside."

6.25pm The cut-off time for a 20-over game is 9.45pm. So there's plenty of time left.

Tariq has an interesting suggestion to liven things up: "They should plan a Swimming Competition between SL and NZ players in parallel in case it rains (which it always does), so that those who bought tickets are compensated."

Akshat: "This is what the ICC should do for FTP. Get in touch with the meteorological departments of all full-members countries and identify drought-prone areas. Behold!! Rains galore!!"

Anees writes in: "Sid, I am so fed up with the rain during this series that I don't want it in my own place although it has not rained here for more than a year."

6.00pm A thin drizzle now, but it's still around. Some hope of the rain relenting.

5.40pm It's still raining, unfortunately, and Roshan Abeysinghe says on Twitter that there are pools of water on the covers and outside the playing perimeter as well. So we've had an hour's stoppage so far.

5.15pm No good news I'm afraid, we're told it's coming down pretty hard in Hambantota.

5.00pm Drizzling now, we are told. There's breeze but also a lot of dark clouds around.

4.50pm A twitter round reveals the rain has got heavier and it's got darker in Hambantota.

4.40pm The covers are being brought on now. It's just a drizzle but the umpires don't want to take any chances. The wind's blowing hard, and the rain's getting heavier.

It's started to drizzle

The groundsmen are getting ready with the covers. No rain, though, yet. Southee is back into the attack, comes round the wicket

Dark clouds hovering over the ground now, Shaminda Eranga walks in.

Ellis bowled an expensive over before this, but he's going to continue. Sri Lanka have taken the batting Powerplay.