4.38pm Here comes the inevitable: it's stumps. The entire third day is washed out, leaving the third unofficial Test, and with that the series, heading towards a draw. Join us for the fourth and final day of this game and the tour tomorrow. Until then, it's a goodbye from here!

4.02pm In a non-update, the next inspection will be at 4.30pm. It continues to be that kind of a day, when news or updates have been about everything but any play. Meanwhile, here's something coming out of neighbouring Australia: Marnus Labuschagne will be dropped for the Test series against New Zealand in December.

3.42pm In another seemingly positive development, there will be an inspection at 4pm. Meanwhile, the players officially took tea at 3.40pm. So if there's any play that begins in a while, it would all be held in one session.

Manoj: "Looking at these current weather pattern in NZ, I think it is going to dent India's prospect in WTC" --- S Rajesh has more on it in his WTC final scenarios.

3.14pm In some good news, all covers are off now. But could we yet have any action after more than a session being washed out? Stay tuned to find out.

Thanks Shashank. It's early morning in India, and with so much of wait for cricket, I can't help but look forward to breakfast. It's cloudy and gloomy where I stay - dare I say it could rain - so I've started to dream of hot coffee and pakodas.

But as I type, they're looking at removing the covers. Mop up operations could begin, too. With that, here's Himanshu again.

3pm This will be a dampener for the Indians. While the batters have got in enough time - especially those part of the Test side, like Jaiswal, Padikkal and Jurel - they would've dearly loved for Bumrah, Prasidh and Akash Deep to get some miles in.

Rohit from Christchurch tells me, "it's bad." Just two words when asked to describe the weather. He further adds, "doesn't look like." Make of that what you will.

2.18pm The update is there's no update. Continues to pitter-patter. So it's a good time to actually dig into what Karthik Krishnaswamy has been upto since he arrived in New Zealand. One of his first pitstops was Mount Roskill, the Auckland suburb where he bumped into Tarun Nethula, and ate food that gave him a taste of home some 12,000 kilometres away.

1.45pm Here's Shashank taking over again.

1.15pm Once again, all we can do is wait and hope that the weather clears soon. There bas no news or update ever since we first saw visuals of it raining in the morning before the scheduled start of play.

Aditi: "Why'd we declare with Tilak on 81??" --- The motive must have been to bowl some overs and test the New Zealand A batters late in the day rather than letting Tilak score a hundred.

Hello again, everyone. Rain rain go away, 22 cricketers want to play...

12.35pm Back to Himanshu.

11.40am Hearing that there's no chance of play for at least the next hour or so. Won't be surprised if the entire first session is a washout. And it looks like the rain is following India's ODI squad as well. Karthik Krishnaswamy reports of similar conditions in Hamilton ahead of tomorrow's third ODI.

11.20am There has been no official word in the last 25 minutes. Now here's Shashank for some rain watch.

Pratap: "Is it still raining??" --- Presumably so, even as we haven't heard or seen anything since the last update.

10.55am We have some grim news: it's raining in Lincoln. The pitch is firmly covered, and the forecast isn't very encouraging either. So hang tight, and keep waiting for now.

But watch out for Jasprit Bumrah. He has been injured in the lead-up to the senior India side's Test series against New Zealand, and is playing this game to prove his fitness. Bumrah bowled six overs yesterday, and while he will be keen to show he's here fully fit and firing, India A would be careful to not overbowl and overburden him already.

10.50am Welcome to the start of day three. New Zealand A, two down and trailing by a mammoth 428 runs, will be under the pump. The ball is just 14 overs old, and Prasidh Krishna has struck twice already.

What makes Jasprit Bumrah so hard to face? Read this extract from a new book called The Boom Effect.

Runs for almost every Indian batter, notably all those part of the Test series. Prasidh and Bumrah then delivered a fine opening burst as India A have prised out two wickets at the fag end of the day to take full control of this match. Tilak, playing as the back-up with Pant unavailable, further presented a case to become an all-format player, while Washington showed glimpses of his batting ability to be considered for that No. 7 spot for Wellington. Do join us tomorrow once again for Day 3. Until then, it's goodbye and goodnight from Abhimanyu and Shashank. Happy Diwali to those celebrating.