Like a time bomb, the minutes are ticking down frustratingly as the rain continues to fall here in Colombo. Desperate for a win to equalise the series the rain is acting as an unwelcome barrier to our aspiration of boarding Wednesday's plane to Zimbabwe with a test match victory to our credit.

Amazingly, we started again this morning only an hour after the scheduled starting time. I say amazing because it rained heavily throughout the night. While we had little interruption until an hour after lunch a storm cloud the size of the Niagra Falls emptied its weighty load upon Colombo like a tidal wave from the sky. It was almost like a scene from a horror movie as the black cloud made its way menacingly from the ocean to the SSC cricket ground. Slowly and deliberately it rolled into sight before hammering the streets of Colombo, including the patch of grass we were inhabiting for the day, like an angry Martian from the sky. Within 10 minutes the arena was more like the Swan River than a test match cricket ground.

From our changing room the feeling was one of frustration as Ricky and Damien Fleming had combined to put us in a strong first innings position. From ball one 'Punter' looked in great form as he danced down the pitch and smashed 'Murali' through mid off for four runs. His footwork was as quick lightning and his bat at times like a broomstick as he swept the spinners to all parts of the on side of the ground. Cruelly falling short of a century in the first Test, he deserves a test century when play hopefully resumes tomorrow.

With the pitch showing life for the pace men and distinct turn for the spinners, the good guys are in an excellent position for this test match. There is still over three hundred overs left in this game so a result is still foremost in every one of our minds. If we could rely on a successful result from the Rain Gods over the next three days then I will be backing our bowlers and my batting partners to produce the goods for the remainder of this Test match.

Everyone in the team is pumped regardless of the falling rain, a factor that is totally out of our control.

Wet in Colombo! JL