Bangladesh vs New Zealand, 1st ODI at Dhaka, BAN v NZ, Sep 21 2023 - Match Result

8:26pm: Relentless rain has the final word. The game has officially been called off. Two breaks - first about a couple of hours, the second for about an hour and 45 minutes. This time, there was lightning and downpour that's left puddles in the outfield. The play was good while it lasted but let's hope for better in a couple of days. For now, it's me, Ekanth, signing off on behalf of Abhimanyu Bose, my co-commentator, and our scorers, Thilak Ram and Chandan Duorah.

7:57pm: Back to square one we go, which might get spilling soon as it's raining heavily again. About eight minutes later, three of the floodlight towers have been switched off. Isam informs that 9:06pm is the cut-off time for a 20 over game.

S M Mehdi Akram: "Heavy raining now Dhanmondi. "

Sagar Alam: "It's getting hard to keep count of how many times the rain is starting and stopping in a minute "

anik: "It's raining now, also lightning. I think we are done for today."

7:45pm: "Any update? My phone is dying" Nope, Tanvir Rivnat. You can focus fully on finding the charger. About five minutes later, Isam pings that rain has stopped.

MONJUR : "Lightning " Yup, Isam says the umpires are concerned by it as well.

Asif Qureshi: "@Ekanth what is the probability of abandoning the game?" Think it's too early, at this point, for it to be 50/50. It's more than zero though.

7:22pm: One of the umpires was having a chat with Lockie Ferguson. Isam said that we were very close to knowing the revised conditions. But just as the umpires walked off to inform the teams, the covers came back on. So, there's an actual chance of this being the end of New Zealand's innings.

M Arman: "Looks like groundstaff having busy times these days"

7:07pm: As SikandarKhattak notes in the comments, "They are removing the covers Again." About ten minutes later, the umpires walk out for a check.

DaWolf: "Maybe so many overs from spin for Bangladesh and many dot balls meant they were ahead of the over rate, which is why no overs needed to be lost?" Might be.

6:58pm: Well well, the umpires have decided not to take off any further overs. The 20-minute delay hasn't cost any game time. Literally a minute later, the covers come back on. What a teaser.

Christheump: "How can they not reduce overs? Once they have started reducing, because of the previous extended rain break, surely any further delay will mean the immediate loss of overs?" Yeah, not sure what happened. Alas, the second break should force the delay.

Sagar Alam: "I am near mirpur 10, 1 km far from stadium, just now it started raining heavily"

Ratil Hasan: "Are we going to loss any overs?" Might lose one or two. We'll know in a minute.

6:47pm: The large cover is being pulled out, which brings about a cheer. Some groundstaff members pull a blanket-like cover over the grass to dry the outfield. Few minutes later, the graphic on screen reads the coverage will restart at 6:57pm.

6:40pm: Oh no, there's another rain break. Groundstaff members bring on the covers. Might be a bit anticipatory, doesn't look too heavy. Steady drizzle is the phrase Isam's used to describe it. What's certain is overs being lost if this continues, because of the two-hour stoppage earlier.

Ekanth will see you through to the end of the innings

Mahedi Hasan replaces Mustafizur

Great Boo: "One Two Three For Five, my favourite score!"

Cole McConchie is in at No. 7

NZ Caps: "123/4. Is this new kind of Nelson?" 123 for 5 now

Rachin Ravindra the new batter at the crease