NAPIER: Daniel Vettori said on Friday he was delighted at the prospect of becoming the first New Zealander to take 300 ODI wickets, but his team’s success at the World Cup meant more than individual records.
Vettori has taken 298 ODI wickets with his left-arm spin and should have the opportunity to join the elite 300 club when the Black Caps play Afghanistan in Napier on Sunday.
Eleven players, none of them New Zealanders, have reached the milestone, including all-time leader Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan (534) and Wasim Akram of Pakistan (502), the only two men to have broken through the 500-wicket barrier.
Vettori, who has taken eight wickets so far at the World Cup, admitted he had given little thought to his one-day figures after a lengthy battle with back injury that threatened to end his career.
Instead, he said he was focused on his Test figures — he has 362 wickets and 4,531 runs and had hoped to eventually become the second player behind the great Kapil Dev to achieve the double of 400 Test wickets and 4,000 runs.
That now looks unlikely for Vettori, who is 36 and in the twilight of his career, but he said the Black Caps’ strong run as World Cup co-hosts was inspiration enough. “I spent a long time thinking about those Test records and sometimes one-day cricket was put a little bit in the background, and I’ve come into this tournament thinking a little bit that way as well,” he said.
He added that because of how his side was progressing, he had not thought about the record even though it would be a great achievement.
The former New Zealand skipper won plaudits when he slowed Australia’s scoring dramatically last week, helping New Zealand to a nail-biting one-wicket win.
“My role is to be complementary to our attacking bowlers…to tie up the other end,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 7th, 2015.
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