Vettori stars in ten-run win

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JOHANNESBURG, Sept 16 (Cricinfo): A masterclass of left-arm bowling from Daniel Vettori allowed New Zealand to sponge the pressure of a ballistic start to the run chase by India and script a fine 10-run win at the Wanderers. When Vettori brought himself into the attack in the seventh over, India were running hot at 76 for the loss of just Virender Sehwag and the game hung in a balance. But, Vettori varied his flight and pace cleverly to choke the run-flow, increase the pressure and eventually, lured the batsmen to their demise.
A breezy 45 from Brendon McCullum had earlier set the base before Craig McMillan and Jacob Oram turned it into a slogathon with some violent late-order hitting to take New Zealand to a healthy 190 but it almost proved inadequate against the rampaging Indian openers.
It was akin to the Cricinfo Slogout game at its see-sawing best. The bat transformed into a joystick as Sehwag and Gambhir, slashed with gay abandon, scythed through the line and lofted merrily to get off to a rocket-fuelled start.
A masterclass of left-arm bowling from Daniel Vettori allowed New Zealand to sponge the pressure of a ballistic start to the run chase by India and script a fine 10-run win at the Wanderers. When Vettori brought himself into the attack in the seventh over, India were running hot at 76 for the loss of just Virender Sehwag and the game hung in a balance. But, Vettori varied his flight and pace cleverly to choke the run-flow, increase the pressure and eventually, lured the batsmen to their demise.
A breezy 45 from Brendon McCullum had earlier set the base before Craig McMillan and Jacob Oram turned it into a slogathon with some violent late-order hitting to take New Zealand to a healthy 190 but it almost proved inadequate against the rampaging Indian openers.
It was akin to the Cricinfo Slogout game at its see-sawing best. The bat transformed into a joystick as Sehwag and Gambhir, slashed with gay abandon, scythed through the line and lofted merrily to get off to a rocket-fuelled start.
After a quiet first over, Sehwag surged off the blocks with lashing cover drive and an audacious six over long-on before flipping one past square leg in the second over off Mark Gillespie. Gambhir joined in the day-light robbery with a swipe over deep midwicket, a slash over slips and a couple of crunchy cover drives as Bond bled 18 runs in the third over. Jeetan Patel was brought on as early as the fifth over but was ripped apart by Sehwag who carted four boundaries, with a six over cover being the highlight. The chase was truly on.

But a four later, Sehwag was back in the hutch, swatting a Oram full toss to mid-on and when Robin Uthappa, promoted up the order, was beaten by the dip from Vettori, New Zealand were back in the game. Vettori continued to vary his pace and soon deceived Gambhir into top-edging a sweep with a clever slow loopy delivery to push New Zealand ahead.
Then Yuvraj Singh fell, top-edging a sweep off Patel to leave India tottering at 116 for 4. Twelve runs later, an awful mix-up between Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik found Dhoni short of the crease and the cat was squarely among the pigeons.
Vettori prised two wickets in the 17th over to effectively seal the game. He had troubled Irfan Pathan with a slew of arm-balls before finally getting through his defense. Four balls and a dropped-catch later, he lured Karthik to hole out to deep square leg and New Zealand were almost home. There was to be no miracle from the tail and New Zealand ran away to a satisfying victory.
Earlier, it was a cat-and-mouse game during the first half of the New Zealand innings. The momentum kept swinging from one side to the other with the batsmen counterattacking after a couple of good overs before the spinners started to apply the squeeze. Harbhajan Singh was the top performer for India, punctuating his offspinners with doosras and quicker ones and bamboozling the batsmen into suicidal strokes. But, the batsmen had the last laugh, with Oram and McMillan wielding the long-handle effectively, to exhibit that this is indeed a batsman's game.
McCullum counterattacked after the fall of Lou Vincent, driving Sreesanth nuts with three gorgeous drives before square-driving and pulling RP Singh to the boundary. Dhoni responded by drafting in Ajit Agarkar and Irfan Pathan and the run-rate dipped a touch. Dhoni continued to ring in the changes, bringing in Harbhajan Singh and that paid rich dividends.