World Twenty20: Kiwis face anxious wait on bowlers to face Bangladesh

The New Zealand captain, Ross Taylor, is hoping key bowlers Tim Southee and Daniel Vettori will be fit for their opening Twenty20 World Cup Group D match against Bangladesh today.

Fast bowler Southee and spinner Vettori, along with all-rounder Rob Nicol, have been suffering from sickness. "We still won't know until the end of the day whether we will have a full quota of 15 or not," Taylor said. "The weather outside currently is bit colder than what it was yesterday. So hopefully they can still have lot of energy if they are to play tomorrow."

New Zealand face Pakistan on Sunday at the same venue. The two top teams will advance to the super eight stage.

For Bangladesh, the pace bowler Mashrafe Mortaza is worried about his team's lack of top-level opponents. "If we had played some of our build-up matches against top teams, preparations would have been a little better," he said.

World Twenty20 results & fixtures

Yesterday's result

Group C (Hambantota): South Africa 94 [Levi 50, Amla 32] bt Zimbabwe 93-8 [C Ervine 37; Kallis 4-15] by 10 wickets.

Today's fixtures

Group A (Colombo, 3pm BST): England v Afghanistan

Group D (Pallekele, 11am): New Zealand v Bangladesh

TV Both games on Sky Sports 1