Spinning a yarn: Vettori's never-ending story

BY JONATHAN MILLMOW

Daniel Vettori moves to 99 today.

One test away from the target he set himself as an 18-year-old debutant and 12 behind Stephen Fleming as New Zealand's most capped test cricketer.

Fittingly, Vettori will reach a century of test appearances on his home ground in Hamilton next Saturday, when Australia and New Zealand meet in the second test.

The New Zealand captain is a stats-driven cricketer and has had his sights on 100 caps for some time.

"I'm just trying to get it out the way," he said on the eve of today's test at the Basin Reserve.

"You want to play a huge part in the series but once that 100 is over I'll start looking at Stephen's record and going towards that.

"One hundred tests was always my primary goal when I first started and to tick it off at my home ground against Australia would be something special."

Vettori made his test debut against England in Christchurch in 1997, just 10 days after his 18th birthday.

Cricket followers watched in awe initially, but within a few years there were concerns about his fragile back and the lack of spin he imparted.

Now he is a husband, a father, a charismatic leader and the country's second leading test-wicket taker, behind Richard Hadlee (431), and fifth on the run charts, behind Fleming (7172) , Martin Crowe (5444), John Wright (5334) and Nathan Astle (4702).

Vettori, 31, will be confronted by a couple of obstacles over the next five days.

The Basin Reserve is not kind to finger spinners and Australia do not give their wickets away easily.

In 18 tests at the Basin, Vettori has taken 50 wickets at nearly 40 apiece (39.06).

Mind you, he is just three wickets behind Hadlee as the leading wicket-taker at the ground with 53 at an average of 20.28, narrowly ahead of Chris Martin with 51 at 26.35.

Vettori's record against Australia is 57 wickets at 35.33.

He has bowled splendidly against them – Auckland (match haul of 12-149 in 2000) and Perth (match haul of 8-229 in 2001) spring to mind – without always getting the returns he otherwise might have expected.

The tourists will play him with caution here and be on the lookout for his slider – a delivery that rushes on with the arm.

"Dan is more dangerous when it is not spinning, as funny as that sounds," Australian captain Ricky Ponting said a few days ago."These wickets [one-day pitches] haven't turned at all and the ball that he bowls that slides on is probably his best weapon to right-handed batsmen."

Vettori anticipates a big bowling workload in the first test, particularly if the wind blows like it has in recent days.

"I normally camp down one end and try and tie it up for the seamers coming down the other end," he said.

"The key for me is not getting too aggressive when you bowl into it. You have a role going into it and that is why Iain O'Brien was so good because he just put the ball in the right areas."

Vettori has been in charge for 25 tests for a record of six wins, 12 losses and seven draws.

Only two of those victories rank as meaningful because there have been four successes against Bangladesh.

His wins came against England and Pakistan, both in the first test of a series, but they were leads that were squandered.

His first task today is to win a toss, something he was unable to do in the five-match one-day series.

"My tossing has been poor, I've lost four [sic five] in a row but I've got an extremely good record so I was due to lose some," he says with a wry smile.

AT A GLANCE

Name: Daniel Vettori

Age: 31

Province: Northern Districts

Test record 98 matches 318 wickets at an average of 33.61, 5 wickets in an innings 18 times, 10 wickets in a match 3 times 3802 runs at 30.41, 5 100s, 21 50s

- © Fairfax NZ News