World Cup 2015: Daniel Vettori has repaid his captain's faith in spades

David Warner, like he tends to do any time he’s on a cricket field, was on the charge. He was going at more than run a ball and Australia were rampaging at 51 for 1. Tim Southee, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, was being carted all over Eden Park. So Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand captain, turned to his most experienced and trusted accomplice , Daniel Vettori, to staunch the bleeding. Coming on in just the seventh over, Vettori delivered an unbroken spell of 10 overs for just 41 runs and carving out two wickets, deftly and delicately like a surgeon. By the time he was through, Australia were doddering at 124 for 9. Job well done, Doctor Dan. [caption id=“attachment_2142109” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Daniel Vettori took 4 for 18 against Afghanistan. Getty[/caption] McCullum knew all along what he would get from Vettori. Before the World Cup squad was announced, he said that he would wait as long as possible for Vettori – coming back from injury - to be fit. Vettori has repaid his captain’s faith in spades. In a World Cup tournament where batsmen have ruled the roost and 350 has become the new 300, Vettori has chugged along at an economy-rate of three per over in five matches. He also trails only his team-mates - Tim Southee and Trent Boult – for most wickets in the tournament. But, in a tournament where everyone and their mothers have complained about big bats and field restrictions, the most astonishing statistic is that Vettori has only conceded seven boundaries in the 45.2 overs he has bowled. Against Afghanistan at McLean Park in Napier on Sunday, Vettori was introduced in the third over of the innings so that the opening bowlers could switch ends. Yet, he coolly rocked up, drifted the ball in and found the gap between Usman Ghani’s bat and pad of with is first delivery. A wicket-maiden and he was taken off. Easy as Sunday morning. Vettori wasn’t back again till the PowerPlay was over. No problem. With his first delivery he gave Nawroz Mangal the Ghani treatment. The ball drifted in and kept coming in at the batsman. Mangal made room to cut only to find Vettori had outsmarted him to peg the of stump back. With that, Vettori became the first Blackcap bowler (and 12th overall) to 300 wickets in one-dayers. His spell read 3-1-4-1 Vettori isn’t a Bishan Bedi, who lured batsmen out of the crease with guile and loop. But he isn’t one of the round-armed, run-limiting left arm machines either. He has found a method of his own: varying his pace and lines and using his armball that keeps surprising batsmen no matter how often they have seen it before. In his third spell against Afghanistan, he was on a hat-trick but it wasn’t to be. After Nabi edged a conventional spinner to Ross Taylor at first slip and Afsar Zazai was trapped in front with an armball, Najibullah Zadran safely defended to prevent Vettori becoming the second Kiwi after Danny Morrison to claim a hat-trick in a World Cup. Vettori ended up with the most economical spell of the tournament with figures of 10-4-18-4, bettering India off spinner R Ashwin’s 10-1-25-4 at Perth. For New Zealand, his total of 33 wickets in World Cups now sits behind only Jacob Oram’s 38 and is ahead of Chris Harris (32), Southee (31) and Shane Bond (30). And he could go past Oram by the time this tournament is done. Not bad for a 36-year-old with dodgy Achilles.