COLOMBO, July 3: Heavy rain midway through the morning session forced abandonment of the league tie between India and New Zealand in the Nidahas Cup cricket triseries but virtually assured India a place in the summit clash.New Zealand, under pressure to win and keep in the race, had slumped 128 for five wickets in 31.1 overs after a racy start on electing to bat at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground when the heavens opened up and forced the players indoors.Play started 30 minutes behind schedule due to overnight rain and such was the rain fury that the umpires had no option but to abandon the tie and award a point each to the teams.After today, five of the nine fixtures have been abandoned due to rain making it one of the most rain-hit tournaments.India have six points with a net run rate (NRR) of plus 0.32, the best among the three, on completing their league fixtures. Sri Lanka, also with six points have an NRR of plus 0.20 and play New Zealand in the final league tie on July 5. The Kiwis havefour points and an abysmal NRR of minus 1.02. And to qualify for the final, they have to beat Sri Lanka handsomely.SCOREBOARDNew Zealand: B Young st Mongia b Kumble 26, N Astle c Kumble b Prasad 15, S Fleming c Tendulkar b H Singh 20, C McMillan c Ganguly b Kanitkar 26, M Horne st Mongia b H Singh 0, C Cairns not out 19, A Parore not out 9, Extras (b-2, lb-1, w-9, nb-1): 13. Total (for five wickets in 31.1 overs) 128.Fall of wickets: 1-28, 2-57, 3-85, 4-89, 5-111.Bowling: Agarkar 7-0-39-0, Prasad 5-1-23-1, Harbhajan Singh 8-0-26-2, Kumble 6-1-15-1, Kanitkar 5-0-21-1, Robin Singh 0.1-0-1-0.Result: Match abandoned.
