New Zealand vs South Africa, 3rd ODI at Hamilton, , Oct 27 2014 - Ball by Ball Commentary

4.10pm No man of the match or series awards, I suppose. So that concludes our ball-by-ball coverage of this short ODI series. Hope you enjoyed it. We certainly enjoyed bringing it to you. Until next time, ta ta!

4.00pm Presentation time. Brendon McCullum: "It was a good learning experience for us, good opportunity to get some game time. Credit to AB and his boys. Now we turn our attention to the Test series over there [UAE]. A bit of time away from New Zealand before we come back and sink our teeth into the home summer and obviously the World Cup. It was nice to give some guys opportunities and try out some new combinations."

AB de Villiers: "The wicket lent itself to a really good game of cricket so it's a shame about the weather. We set it up nicely. We could have got a decent total, would have been an exciting game of cricket. We have some competitive games in Australia as well, coming here before the World Cup was all about getting used to conditions, hopefully we are fully prepared when we get to the World Cup. [Preparation] looks good on paper but it doesn't always work that way. We'd love to go to Australia and win that series as well."

3.55pm We have news for you, finally. The match has been abandoned due to rain and the series finishes 2-0 to South Africa.

3.50pm NZC has made this rather despondent tweet:

Hate to say it folks but not looking too pretty in Hamilton at this stage #nzvsa ^CE pic.twitter.com/osb7AZ116g

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) October 27, 2014

Alam: "Remember another rain-delayed ODI in NZ on New Year's Day - almost gave up hope and turned off ESPNCricinfo game broadcast. But, optimistically hung around. Otherwise would have missed the Corey - Jesse show. Lesson: hang around until the match is officially called off."

Vimal: "So Chris Tavare and David Warner were born on the same day? Law of averages at work I guess."

3.25pm Pictures from the ground suggest Atinder Bajwa might be right. Pretty much no one in the stands, apart from a few scattered optimists huddled under umbrellas. Covers are still on and the super sopper is still hard at work.

Atinder Bajwa: "Just left the ground and came home. Almost all realistic people have left the ground and only event staff can be spotted. I hope it suggests to you what we Hamiltonians think about this weather."

Alex: "Honestly people, late spring squalls like this are why there has never been international cricket played in NZ in October before now. Go about your business, there will be no further play here today."

Anton: "Being a local resident I can see the rather gloomy western clouds however there is a bit of patchy blue trying to break through. Unfortunately Hamilton didn't get the "four seasons in one day" reputation because of any hotel... "

Anoop : "Earlier the Cricinfo homepage had the heading rain interrupts South Africa's cruise now it says rain ends South Africa's innings... please throw some light on this." We've lost too much time for South Africa to be able to bat any more, if play is to resume.

Nuno: "It's 2 am here in Portugal, start work at 8 am.....why do i love this game!!! Nobody is gonna stand up to my bad mood in the morning......"

Tim: "Is there any word on minimum requirements for a game? When it would need to get restarted by? What is the projected target for NZ in 20 overs if the SA Innings was forced to end right now?" By our calculations, if New Zealand were set a 20-over chase, their target would be 163.

2.40pm While we wait for the weather to clear, let's all wish Mark Taylor, Kumar Sangakkara, Chris Tavare, Irfan Pathan and David Warner a happy birthday.

Optimist: "I live on west-side of the ground (just about 6,000 Kms away in Perth). Its all bright and sunny now. So I suppose it wouldn't be long for the game to start!"

2.30pm It doesn't seem to be raining now, or particularly heavily at any rate, but there are large, dark, evil clouds hanging over the stadium. The groundstaff are soaking up the water off the covers, but it doesn't seem likely that play will resume anytime soon. Stay tuned for more updates (and let me know if you guys chance upon anything I might have missed on Twitter and suchlike).

And here's an update of sorts from New Zealand Cricket:

Still rain about in Hamilton, covers are on and the soakers are out. No word on a start time team, will update when we can #nzvsa ^RI

— BLACKCAPS (@BLACKCAPS) October 27, 2014

Eeshan: "Out of curiosity, if the match is washed out, do the batsmen's/bowler's results count to their respective statistics? For instance, imagine if the Sachin 200* game had been washed out in the second innings... would his score have counted?" Yes, Eeshan. They do count.

AJ: "I'm no meteorologist, but looking at the rain radar, it looks like the rain will be dissipating shortly. Don't think it'll be more than half an hour" No meteorologist can pull off that kind of breezily confident statement :)

Josh: "Might be a chance for Corey to break his own record!" That's if the match resumes with enough time left for South Africa to set New Zealand a big enough target for Corey to score a hundred. At this point in time, I cannot say that looks likely.

1.50pm Rain seems to have stopped, and the super sopper seems to be on to remove water from the covers. Wait. No. The people milling about in the crowd are still carrying umbrellas. And other cameras that are unprotected from the elements have drops of rain sliding down their lenses. In short: move along, folks. Nothing to see here just yet.

Angus: "Looking at at least 2 more hours of rain, so if we get a game it will be shortened. Good chance for Anderson or Neesh to be unleashed - both need something with the bat this series!"

Apoorv: "@GermanPlayer 2-0 enough to get SA to top. Since the 3rd odi is abandoned, the rankings won't change after that."

GermanPlayer: "@Sreechandra You are quite right. But the question was, what happens to the rankings with a 2-0 win? That is what we don't know."

Sreechandra : "A washout will result in the game being abandoned. It would be like the game didn't happen. So, NO CHANGE IN RANKINGS."

Dan: "A win keeps SA at the top while a loss drops them to third - what does a washout do? Impressed by Henry, apart from that loose first over he's bowled extremely well." Good question. Unable to work it out on the ICC rankings predictor site. Anyone has an answer?

1.15pm And here come the umps. Well, they're now heading back, because it's begun drizzling once more. It's more than a drizzle, in fact. The covers have come back on, and life will have to carry on without cricket for a little while longer.

1.05pm Um, I suppose I'm being a bit of an unreliable commentator. The covers seem to be going off after all. Play, we hear, will resume in 10 minutes. The rain radar (thanks for the link, David) looks quite scary, though, especially if you're colour-blind like me and can't quite differentiate between "light" and "possible hail".

Zeeshan Mahmud: "I am surprised at no Henry-Rosseau wordplay after the wicket." I'm sure there would have been plenty of that from our extremely erudite readers if we had been able to receive your feedback earlier :)

1.00pm The umpires seem to be discussing pretty much the same thing with the groundstaff, and the covers aren't going off since they're expecting more rain. In fact, a couple more covers are coming on. There's still a bit of drizzle, and it's expected to get heavier.

Hey hey, what can I say? Magically, your comments have begun to appear, and the first one that goes up, appropriately enough, is about the weather:

David: "The Metservice rain radar is still showing a large band of rain heading in the direction of Hamilton and the Waikato. I'd be surprised if there was too much more play."

12.55pm It seems to have stopped raining, and it looks like the covers might come off quite soon. Another reminder to all you potentially puzzled folk that we're having a bit of a problem receiving your commentary feedback. We're trying to sort that situation out.

12.45pm The rain's become a lot heavier over the course of the last two-three overs, and now the umpires have called the players off the field. On come the covers.

Let's have a bit of a recap. New Zealand sent South Africa in, and Matt Henry got the ball to stop on the batsmen to dismiss Amla and Rossouw fairly early. There's been a bit of sideways movement and inconsistent pace off the pitch, but de Kock has looked quite comfortable in moving to 80. AB had one scare when he nearly popped a c&b to Nathan McCullum and was hit on the head by Southee last ball before the players went off for rain, but he's otherwise looked as industrious, fleet-footed and AB-like as ever.

Umbrellas going up in the grass banks

Southee's back now