Shivnarine Chanderpaul - file

dunedin, new zealand, cmc

West Indies were greeted by chilly temperatures and rainy weather here yesterday, as they prepared to fine tune their dress rehearsal for the opening Test against New Zealand at University Oval Thursday.

Temperatures dipped to as low as 10 degrees Celsius and steady rain persisted for most of the day, forcing cricket officials here to eye the weather with suspicion as the opening match of the two-Test series approached. It rained here on Sunday and weather forecasters have already predicted rain for Thursday.

West Indies are coming off their three-day tour match against Auckland, the only warm up match on the itinerary where the tourists play two Tests, two Twenty20 Internationals and five One-Day Internationals.

Dodgy weather

The dodgy weather ensured the Windies practiced at the High Performance Centre here, undergoing a two-hour session at the indoor facility.

"It's frustrating," said the team's leading batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

"Obviously, I'd been looking forward to the first training session woke up very early at 5.30pm . . . looked outside and it was raining. So it all changed."

Chanderpaul was one of the batsmen who missed out on big runs against Auckland last week, scoring just 22 in West Indies' 431 for seven at Eden Park Outer Oval.

Ramnaresh Sarwan, who last week quit the vice-captaincy post, was one of two West Indies batsmen to cash in on a pitch tailor-made for batting, scoring 158, while Sewnarine Chattergoon fell just short of a century with 93.

Captain Chris Gayle sat out the match along with Carlton Baugh, Jerome Taylor and Daren Powell.

West Indies are chasing their first series win over New Zealand in 12 years.