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Daniel Vettori isn't fazed by the challenge he faces.
New Zealand cricket's spin king needs to take 12 wickets against the WestIndies starting on Sunday to become the game's youngest bowler to capture
100 test wickets.
It's a difficult assignment, but who would bet against Vettori achieving it?
The youngster -- he turns 21 on January 27 -- has made a habit of creating
cricketing milestones. But Vettori's record aspirations were made much harder
earlier this week when Chris Cairns grabbed seven wickets in a
match-winning second innings display in the first test against the Windies in
Hamilton.
That left Vettori with just one second innings wicket, after he took four in the
first innings, to advance his tally to 88 from 27 tests.
"I was reasonably confident I'd pick up a few there," Vettori said of his home
ground in Hamilton.
"But the wicket perhaps almost ended up turning too much for me and guys
ended up padding the ball away it was spinning so much.
"In the end I was just trying to bowl straight, trying to support Cairnsy as it
would spin no matter what."
If Vettori doesn't achieve the milestone -- it's unlikely he will -- he seems
certain to reach the 100-wicket mark in the home test series against Australia
in March.
By then he will have turned 21 and unable to head Kapil Dev (India) 21 years
and 23 days, and probably Waqar Younis (Pakistan) at 21 years 47 days.
Still, Vettori's effort is remarkable for one so young.
Already this season, with 12 wickets in India and five against the West Indies,
he has overtaken former leading New Zealand slow bowlers, Stephen Boock
(74 wickets from 30 tests), Dipak Patel (75 in 37), and Hedley Howarth (86
in 30).
Only John Bracewell (102 from 41) remains.
Given Vettori's ratio of wickets per game -- about three to four -- the hundred
will be hoisted and Bracewell headed.
And with the longevity of spinners and Vettori's early introduction, he has the
ability to be around for another 15 years.
Sir Richard Hadlee, New Zealand's leading test-wicket taker, should watch
out.
Vettori's rise to prominence has been one of the most meteoric and successful
in New Zealand.
Plucked from the Northern Districts Shell Trophy team after just two first-class games, he became New Zealand's youngest test cricketer when he debuted aged 18 years 10 days against England in February 1997.
He took nine wickets in a man-of-the-match winning performance against Sri Lanka that season to signal his arrival.
Around that time a host of left-arm orthodox slow bowlers, including Mark Priest, Matthew Hart, and Mark Haslam, had been experimented with and discarded for various reasons.
Vettori stepped forward and has been a frontline selection since.
He has a fluent run to the wicket, bowls with an inviting loop, has developed variations in flight, and possesses an effective arm ball.
Not only is his left-arm bowling demanding, but he is also an energetic, never-say-die fielder and burgeoning lower-order batting talent.
He is the Black Caps' nightwatchman by choice and says he relishes the chance to get to the batting crease earlier when usually having to languish down around No. 10.
Nightwatchmen are lower-order batsmen who are sent in if a wicket falls late in a day's play to protect more established batters.
In England this year, Vettori scored a telling 54 at Lord's as nightwatchman and made another half century in the fourth test at the Oval. Both tests were won by New Zealand.
But not everything has always gone Vettori's way.
Last season he came under criticism for persisting with a defensive, over-the-wicket line where he bowled into the rough around leg stump in the series against South Africa.
"It seemed to work for a little while so I decided to keep doing it, probably for too long. If I'd had the success now I'm having going around the wicket I'd
probably not have gone on with it."
Vettori regards himself as an attacking bowler, despite often having to bowl long spells.
"Sometimes conditions don't suit me, but I'm there to tie down an end and bowl maidens while someone attacks at the other end."
Vettori says he doesn't model himself on anyone in particular, and doesn't have a special mentor, but he listens and learns from those around him.
He rates fellow left-armer Phil Tufnell (England) and admires Pakistan off-spinner Saqlain Mushtaq. Becoming a cricket professional so soon meant Vettori has had to shelve the pharmacy course he intended taking at university and some of the trappings of student life.
But he says he still has his mates there and still seems the part with his studious look and spectacles.
"I miss a bit of that and the usual stuff they get up to at uni, but I wanted to be a professional cricketer. It just happened sooner than expected."
Vettori has also had to cope with the stardom which comes with being feted as a recognisable international player.
"Sometimes it can be quite hard but you learn to cope. The hardest thing is living out of a suitcase for such long periods of time."
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