Southee in hospital with dehydration

Northland's Tim Southee has been admitted to hospital with dehydration and Rob Nicol is also too ill to travel to Kandy ahead of New Zealand's first Twenty20 World Cup match against Bangladesh on Friday.

Southee, who New Zealand Cricket said was displaying symptoms associated with gastroenteritis, has been admitted to a Colombo hospital. He is not thought to be in a serious condition.

Daniel Vettori, who like Southee was ruled out of Monday's warm-up defeat to South Africa in Colombo due to illness, thought to be food poisoning, has improved and has travelled with the team.

Nicol played in the South Africa match but is now also ill. New Zealand's stocks were so low that bowling coach Damien Wright was forced to field for the Black Caps.

"We had a few illnesses leading into the match, only having 11 there, but the whole squad's had a game so far in the last couple of weeks, so we're looking forward to the start of the World Cup," captain Ross Taylor said.

"Millsy [Kyle Mills] and Jake [Jacob Oram] weren't going to play in the first place. Dan and Timmy falling ill, both eating at the same place, I'm not sure what it was. It's part and parcel of this part of the world. Sometimes you do get sick and hopefully we've got it out of the way now and there will be 15 people to choose from come the first game."

The depleted squad gave young bowlers Doug Bracewell and Adam Milne another chance to impress ahead of possible World Cup debuts.

Milne was the pick of the New Zealand bowlers after taking the wickets of the two South African openers and finishing with 2-26 from four overs. Bracewell dismissed South Africa's top scorer AB de Villiers for 54 while giving up 36 runs in three overs.

"They are both very young in their international careers and even though it was a warm-up game, they would have learned a lot from the way they bowled," Taylor said.

The Black Caps tried opening with two spinners in Nathan McCullum and Ronnie Hira. And it worked briefly, with just 18 runs coming from the first three overs before Hira went for 19 in the fourth over as South Africa went on to post 186 for six.

The other change in tactics saw James Franklin moved to the top of the batting order but he managed only 12 from 11 balls, while regular opener Rob Nicol benefited from a move down the order to five, in scoring 37 as New Zealand reached 177 for eight. APN News & Media