| ENGLAND BATTERED AND BADLY BRUISED
|
|
Daniel Vettori performed at test level while still at school. Now he's teaching England a lesson.
Taking the temperature of England's cricket at noon, Lord's arrived at an unhappy diagnosis. The captain, Nasser Hussain, was in hospital, having x-rays; the bright young hope, Alex Tudor, was in the doghouse for having kept quiet about his own earlier appointment with the doctor; and the team's first-innings arrears were growing at a brisk rate. Lest it slip the mind, the most effective bowler, Darren Gough, is also hors de combat, unfit.
Examining all this, a young medical student concluded that here was a sick body on which he could work. Daniel Vettori, 20, is here chiefly as New Zealand's leading spinner. His talents extend further. A couple of years ago, he was an aspiring doctor, and yesterday he put in his overtime as a batsman, allowing New Zealand to build a first innings advantage which may shape the result of the second Test.
By the end of the afternoon, 21 overs of his accurate, teasing, slow left-arm had dismissed both England openers, and an umpire's misjudgment prevented him having Aftab Habib caught behind to gain a third wicket shortly before the close. Vettori would be right to fancy his chances of helping his country level the series today.
"It was almost a perfect day for me," he said, the "almost" referring to the appeal against Habib. "It would have been nice to have finished on a better note. We were confident about Habib, but Rudi Koertzen, the umpire, didn't hear it. I told the batsman I was a bit peeved."
Just peeved? "There were no choice comments," replied Vettori, whose teammates are a talkative bunch out in the middle. "I just said I thought he was remarkably lucky."
Privately, as he watched the highlights in his hotel room later, Habib would have been inclined to agree.
It was the tourists' day throughout, which is nothing new, this being Lord's, but New Zealand had looked positive from the start.
Resuming on two, Vettori added a further 52 to his score, and a few notches to a Test batting average of less than 17.
This has been a good series for nightwatchmen, as Tudor will now have a long time to reflect on, and fortune smiled on Vettori - or at least winked cheerily at him. With his scholarly spectacles and unruly mop of hair, Vettori still looks like the independent spirit who came from nowhere to play against England as a schoolboy two winters ago.
Twenty Tests later, the medicine degree is on hold; the wickets have come regularly, if at some expense. And he now has a third Test half-century on his CV (which includes a top score of 90 against Zimbabwe).
Vettori's open stance is hardly textbook, but given room, he drove and cut with assurance. Having edged his first delivery of the morning, bowled by Dean Headley, and watched the ball drop safely short of slip, he grew in confidence. He gathered most of his runs square on the off side, and provided an anchor for two productive partnerships, first with Adam Parore and then with the influential Chris Cairns.
Under a bright sun, it was a frustrating, first session for England's quick bowlers, Caddick squirting one delivery through Vettori, Mullally whistling one past Parore's outside edge. Less threatening stuff - and there was plenty of it - was punished. When Headley tried attacking Vettori from around the wicket, he was promptly forced for four, bringing up the 300. Headley answered with a bouncer, a tame threat on this surface.
Vettori and Cairns put on 70 for the eighth wicket, and did it in good time. Cairns's 31 from 42 balls may look a key contribution in the final account. He has had a lively match, too, with six wickets in England's brittle first innings, and plenty of aggression with bat, ball and body language.
Vettori was rolling his arm over as early as the 10th over of England's second innings, encouraged bu the turn that Phil Tufnell had discovered, belatedly, when he bowled. Vettori gave the ball more flight, more often, than Tufnell had, although he perhaps spun it less appreciably.
Above all, he was accurate and, on the stroke of tea, he made the first breakthrough. Mark Butcher had not taken to the spinner as positively as Alec Stewart had. Seeking to sweep, Butcher top-edged and Nathan Astle sprinted back from slip to catch him.
|
