Early morning rainfall meant that the ground was covered.
The groundsmen remained busy clearing the puddle of water on the covers with super sopper as the match officials inspected the pitch around the scheduled start time of 9.30am.
However, the good news was the covers slowly came off the ground as the rain had stopped more than an hour back.
The weathermen, incidentally, have predicted light rain and thundershowers for three days.
Yesterday the start was delayed by 26 minutes as the groundsmen were told to keep the covers on in anticipation of rain that never arrived.
New Zealand were 106 for five in reply to India's first innings score of 438 in the first of the two-Test series.
The second and final Test of the series will be held in Bangalore from August 31-September 4.
