Wellington, Dec 2 NZPA - The Australian tasked with ensuring the Basin Reserve's 50th cricket test is not a damp squib is confident it has not be compromised by Wellington's miserable weather.

The wicket block has barely been exposed to daylight since late last week but Cricket Wellington's turf manager Brett Sipthorpe thinks the time spent under cover will not be detrimental when the second test between New Zealand and Pakistan starts tomorrow at midday.

A bouncier pitch that the one prepared in Dunedin last week was always anticipated but with a degree of `sweating' inevitable under the protective canvas the seam bowlers could gain even more assistance tomorrow morning.

However, Sipthorpe is confident it will not give the pacemen an unfair advantage and make the toss a decisive factor in the outcome although ideally the pitch will get a decent time to breath before the toss.

"All we need is seven or eight hours without any decent rain then we should be OK," he said today.

"It's been under cover four of the last five days so it's been a bit of a challenge.

"We knew there was a fair bit of rain coming so we made sure we were well and truly ahead of schedule. It was ready on Sunday.

"It's hard, the grass is rolled in so there's not a lot of life in it. It'll just be that little bit of sweating that will give it a little bit of seam early."

Neither team have been able to train at the venue due to the rain so they have been denied the chance to make a decent assessment of the pitch.

However, New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori indicated he was unlikely to employ four seamers -- at the expense of a batsman.

"The wicket was prepared four days ago so it may not be as bad as people are anticipating," he said.

Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam suggested the tourists will also rely on the three-pronged pace trio that worked effectively in Dunedin, plus offspinner Saeed Ajmal.

Legspinner Danish Kaneria, a 54-test veteran, might have exploited the extra bounce but Intikhab said it would be difficult to omit Ajmal despite his moderate success at University Oval.

Encouragingly, the forecast is provisionally fine for the duration of the test at a venue associated with some of New Zealand cricket's finest moments.

In 1978 England were defeated for the first time in a test by New Zealand by 72 runs; a nine-wicket defeat of Australia in 1990 was another memorable experience.

Vettori nominated the four-wicket win over India in the Boxing Day test of 1999 as his favourite recollection, although his bowling contribution was relatively minor, with two wickets for 112.

However, in a portent of what was to come later in his career, Vettori made a dogged 57 from 194 balls in New Zealand's first innings, batting at No 9.