Halfway through the evening session, India were reeling at 40/5.

Maintaining his already impressive record of picking up a wicket in his first over, he then settled in to bowl 6.3 overs, including a change of ends to relieve fast man Shane Bond, before conceding his first run, a single to mid-wicket to Rahul Dravid.

Sourav Ganguly cut four from the next ball then, inexplicably, waved his bat at a lifting ball which flew, as if providing catching practice, to Stephen Fleming at first slip where he held his 110th Test catch.

When after 20 overs, India were 36/4, Rahul Dravid, who had taken several blows to his body, especially when Bond was bowling, was on nine while V V S Laxman was still to score.

Tuffey was able to use a highly-effective leg-cutter which was squaring up all the batsmen as they attempted to come to grips with the lively conditions which New Zealand chose to use first when play began at 4.30pm with 38 overs to bowl.

Earlier, Sanjay Bangar clipped the first ball of the game off his hip to score a single, but he lasted only three more balls when falling to the third ball of Tuffey's first over.

This time he was aided by a good catch from Jacob Oram diving forward in the gully. Bangar's run was the only run on the board at that stage.

Bond wound up slowly but bowled a fraction short and from the third ball of his third over, Virender Sehwag got one that snarled and lifted sharply. He looked to turn his back on the ball and paid the consequences when the ball took his glove, hit his shoulder and lobbed to Mark Richardson at short-leg. Sehwag too, was out for one, and India were 11 for two.

Rahul Dravid had to call on all his technical expertise to handle Bond's pace and took several blows to the body. Bond was able to generate more pace than in Wellington and was consistently sending down balls at more than 140km/h.

Tuffey was taken off after four overs that had not conceded a run while including the first wicket.

He replaced Bond from the Members' End after Bond had bowled seven overs and taken one for seven.

Sachin Tendulkar suggested he was coming to grips with the pitch when taking seven from an Oram over, including the first boundary of the innings, from a back cut.

But when on nine, a leg-cutter squared him up and the ball flew to Styris at third slip.

After Ganguly had gone, the best technician in the conditions, Dravid succumbed when he edged one from Tuffey and Robbie Hart dived well to his right to take a fine catch to end Dravid's 85-minute stay for nine runs.

India were 40/5 and Tuffey had four for five.

The start is being made at 4.30pm local time with 38 overs to be bowled, 142 overs after the match was scheduled to start yesterday.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming had no qualms about bowling first on a pitch which has lost a fair amount of the green look that was revealed when the covers were taken off on the first morning.

That will be some mild relief for India. What it means for New Zealand is that they will have to negotiate a damp outfield first.

Ganguly had no complaints about having to play in the conditions.

"We have no choice, we are 1-0 down in the series, we want to play," he said.

New Zealand is taking an unchanged side into the match.

India have made one change, the expected switch from Agit Agarkar to Tinu Yohannan.

The sides will go into the field in perfect overhead conditions with a slight breeze, bright sunshine and temperatures around 22 degrees celsius.

The teams are:

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Mark Richardson, Lou Vincent, Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Scott Styris, Jacob Oram, Robbie Hart, Daniel Vettori, Daryl Tuffey, Shane Bond. Michael Mason (12th man).

India: Sourav Ganguly (captain), Verender Sehwag, Sanjay Bangar, Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar, V V S Laxman, Parthiv Patel, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Tinu Yohannan, Ashish Nehra.

A lengthy meeting between the match umpires, Asoka de Silva and Daryl Harper, ICC match referee and the two captains, Stephen Fleming (New Zealand) and Sourav Ganguly (India) preceded the announcement that play would start at 4.30pm.

The toss will be made at 4pm and there will be no tea break.

The weather is very hot with a slight breeze having come up, but it does seem that the outfield will be less than perfect, although it will be considerably better than earlier today.

One of the better points about the delay will be that the pitch will have lost some of its spite, although it still has a greenish look to it.

The match umpires, Asoka de Silva (Sri Lanka) and Daryl Harper (Australia), had another inspection of the ground at 1.30pm today in company with International Cricket Council match referee Mike Procter.

They also talked with the respective captains, Stephen Fleming of New Zealand and Sourav Ganguly of India.

It was decided they will meet with the two captains in the middle of the ground at 3pm and a decision will be made on what happens for the remainder of the day.

The popular prediction is that there will be one three-hour session starting at 4pm.

Fine, hot weather continues in Hamilton.

The problem areas in the outfield are likely to result in the boundary rope being moved further infield than is normally the case at the ground.

This happened during last year's Test against Bangladesh.

The unofficial opinion has it that a start at 2.30pm is the earliest possibility.

A lack of drying winds on a typically, humid day have left the outfield sodden and match organisers have called in a helicopter to speed up the process.

While the outlook is bright, there is a partial cloud cover that suggests more thunderstorms could be in the area.

What will have pleased the batsmen on both sides is the fact that the pitch has lost its emerald green look with more brownish patches starting to show through.

Yesterday afternoon's thunderstorm did untold damage after all the drying efforts of yesterday. There are three or four puggy patches in the outfield and it is these areas that are getting the helicopter treatment.

Using a helicopter to dry out grounds is not unusual in New Zealand and the3y have made appearances at Wellington and Dunedin in the past.

An aerator is also being used around the outfield in an effort to aid the drying process.

Neither team have started their warm-ups yet.