The veteran New Zealand spin bowler Daniel Vettori believes the knockout rounds of the Cricket World Cup will be something of a lottery as all teams have potential match-winners in their side.
Spinner Daniel Vettori takes a wicket for New Zealand. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Vettori himself produced a man-of-the-match performance on Saturday in Napier, taking four wickets for 18 against Afghanistan, which gave the Black Caps a 5-0 record in pool A.
The 36-year-old reached the 300 wicket milestone, the ninth player to take more than 300 wickets in both Tests and One Day Internationals.
Vettori, who has taken 12 wickets in the tournament at an average of 11.33 and an economy rate of three runs per over, says now isn't the time to celebrate his latest achievement.
"I suppose I went into the World Cup not really thinking about that milestone, I honestly didn't believe I'd take this many wickets in this fewer games so it will be something nice to look back on. But we are caught up in the middle of a world cup, there's an important game on Friday and probably the most important game of our careers the following Saturday so maybe in a month or so time will be a chance to look back on it."
New Zealand lost only four wickets in achieving their target of 187 in the 37th over, their fourth straight successful run chase in low-scoring matches, raising some concern that the lack of time at the crease for some batsmen could be an issue in the knockout stages.
New Zealand's last group match is against Bangladesh in Hamilton on Friday.