Bond not to play against South Africa tomorrow

New Zealand have decided not to risk playing their strike bowler Shane Bond in tomorrow's match against South Africa in Mumbai. Bond had complained of some stiffness and restriction of movement in his back after bowling against Baroda in New Zealand's warm-up fixture at MIG club on Friday.

"Shane has partially recovered by resting in the last 36 hours and was initially keen to bowl today to see if he could be ready for the match versus South Africa, but with two more group matches and hopefully semi-finals and finals of this competition, plus all the other major competitions ahead of us this season, it was agreed amongst team management and Shane that it would be prudent to let him try to fully recover by not bowling for another 48 hours," Lindsay Crocker, the Balck Caps' general manager, said.

Bond's fitness will be assessed again on Tuesday. The remaining 13 members of the squad will be considered for selection for the South Africa match.