South Africa vs India, 1st ODI at Johannesburg, , Nov 19 2006 - Match Result

Hello and welcome to Cricinfo's coverage of the first one-day international between India and South Africa at Johannesburg. This is Jamie Alter, and together with Sriram Veera I'll be bringing you the commentary as it unfolds.

18:41 local, 16:41 GMT Thats that then. The match has been called off. There's no reserve day, as I mentioned, so please join on Wednesday, November 22 for the second ODI at Durban. Its a day-night match, which means a 14:30 local time, 12:30 GMT start. Hope you haven't lost your marbles waiting for stuff to start, as I almost have, tonight. Good night and good luck.

18:19 local, 16:19 GMT Superb. Now the covers are back on. I tell you...oh, and there's no reserve day, by the way. Pa ra pa pa pa, I'm loving it.

18:12 local, 16:12 GMT A field inspection has been scheduled for 18:45 local time, 16:45 GMT.

17:54 local, 15:54 GMT Rain has lightened somewhat. The covers are off. The umpires are out in the middle, the players are stretching. But like the old Pepsi jingle, there's nothing official about it.

17:44 local, 15:44 GMT The umpires are making their way out to the middle...now they're heading to the dressing room to speak to the captains, presumably...its pouring heavily now...all eyes on the dressing room...suppose they'll call it off now...

17:14 local, 15:14 GMT Ho hum. The rain continues to come down. Most of the crowd has left the Wanderers. Its about a third full, I'd say. Not much to do except wait. Do keep those feedback comments coming into our new match-time blog . We've received a good amount of viewer feedback, and have posted a few of them.

16:19 local, 14:19 GMT Its the same story here. We have until 18:30 GMT as the cut-off for a 20-over game. Some people have begun leaving the ground. Chances are that we wont get much play.

15:31 local, 13:31 GMT Well, the rain had slackened somewhat and the covers were going off, but were quickly brought back on. No hold-up from the weather gods.

15:21 local, 13:21 GMT No encouraging news. Its still raining at the Wanderers. Players huddling inside. Watch this space for more.

14:00 local, 12:00 GMT Today's match at the Wanderers Stadium is the first of a best of five series, and the two sides will also play a Twenty20 International. The news from the ground is that its pouring hard and that the start of play has been delayed. Its clear that this match will not start any time soon, unfortunately. The covers have been out for some time and those dark, dark skies do not look comforting.

The pitch: The surface here bears more than a little resemblance to that on which South Africa and Australia combined for an incredible 872 runs in March. The last time India played here, Ricky Ponting and Damien Martyn eviscerated their World Cup dream with some of the finest batting ever seen on the limited-overs stage.

What they had to say:

Graeme Smith: "We may be the favourites, but that's only on paper and we need to make a good start. We analysed the Indian batting but obviously they will be a lot better prepared for Sunday. The Indians haven't performed well in South Africa in the past but this is a pretty new squad. We are confident about our abilities in our country but we also respect the Indians a lot."

Rahul Dravid: "There have been some good past experiences here and some not-so-good ones. We know it's going to be very competitive, really tough and we're going to have to play very well. But the boys are keen to learn and adjust to conditions which they are not used to. Six batsmen should be able to do the job. A number of us have got runs here before, against South Africa and in the 2003 World Cup."

As we wait for the match to start, allow me to introduce Match Vox, the latest feature from Cricinfo, which gives you a voice on the state of play in real time. So if South Africa's batting has got you worked up, or if you feel Dravid has missed a trick in the field settings, post your thoughts and share them with the others who've turned up and tuned in.