New Zealand’s pace bowling battery looked spectacular but it was the spin craft of Daniel Vettori which draw most praise following their World Cup-opening defeat of Sri Lanka.
The 36-year-old left-armer proved his worth once again on Saturday with miserly figures of 2-34 off 10 overs.
He used guile and accuracy to put a chokehold on Sri Lanka’s pursuit of 332 after they had made a decent start at Hagley Oval.
Vettori broke a promising opening stand of 67, luring Tillakaratne Dilshan (24) into a simple caught-and-bowled dismissal.
He returned to remove veteran Mahela Jayawardene for a four-ball duck, sparking Sri Lanka’s slide into oblivion.
Allrounder Corey Anderson said Vettori was deliberately brought back for a second spell when the accomplished Jayawardene arrived at the crease.
“Dan’s got him out numerous times and it obviously paid off today again,” he said.
“He’s just a clever bowler. It’s one of those things where you’d love him to bowl more than 10, especially on that wicket, but you can’t.”
Vettori’s economy rate routinely sets up other bowlers for wickets, Anderson says.
Seamers Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Adam Milne and Anderson himself bagged two wickets each but they owed plenty to the former skipper.
“Dan’s smart and he knows how to get guys out or how to put them on the back foot so they have to try and take apart other bowlers.
“It is pretty difficult to do when Tim, Trent and Milney are firing like they are.”
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