The 1st Cricket test Match between India and New Zealand will begin from Wed, March 18, 2009 , Start time 11.00 local (22.00 GMT) India time 3-30 am

India regroup after defeating New Zealand in the ODI series with an even more ominous line-up for the cricket Test series, India start as firm favourites to win their first Test series in New Zealand in 40 years. Live Scores

New Zealand so far have played 14 Tests in Hamilton won six, lost two and drawn six. Their win loass ratio is among the best among all the venues, India have played 3 Tests here, losing one and drawing two.

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Pitch and Conditions

According to New zealand captain Vettori, “The Pitch will be pretty flat”. “Maybe win the toss and bat first, but we just have to wait and see how it shapes up,” he said. “There is a little bit of live grass on it but generally it is a pretty good deck here.”

Dhoni felt that the conditions would help the seamers more than the pitch. “Looks like a good wicket, definitely there will be a bit of help for the seamers,” he said “More than the wicket, the conditions will favour bowlers, the ball will move.”

Hamilton Weather

The weather in Hamilton on the two days leading up to the Test has been hot and clear. However, there are showers forecast for the second and third days of the match.

India (likely): 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 VVS Laxman, 6 Yuvraj Singh, 7 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 L Balaji/ Munaf Patel.

New Zealand (likely): 1 Tim McIntosh, 2 Martin Guptill, 3 Daniell Flynn, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Jesse Ryder, 6 James Franklin, 7 Brendon McCullum (wk), 8 Daniel Vettori (capt), 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Iain O’Brien, 11 Chris Martin/Brent Arnel.

Quotes

“You have got to take them on. The war of attrition probably won’t work. I think we have got to be aggressive but in saying that, we have got to be disciplined. Those are the things we didn’t quite get right in the one-day series. We didn’t stick at our plans for long enough. In a Test match you just have to do that, otherwise a side like India will blow you off the park.”
Vettori says his team will have to be disciplined yet aggressive in order to beat India.

“I am not bothered about whether we have won here or not. I am just bothered about the things we need to do over here as a team. We are not thinking about what happened in the past. I am not great when it comes to stats, so that really helps.”
Dhoni isn’t burdened by history.

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