Vettori might have delivered the knock-out punch

The last of the three test matches between Pak and NZ had tilted seriously in favour of the Pakistani team with Kaneria having taken a five-wicket haul when no one was expecting the ball to turn. Well, to be honest, most of the wickets were handed out to him due to the inability of the Kiwis to come forward and meet the ball before it gained that decisive curve.
However, Vettori has delivered once again, augmenting and cementing his position as a contemporary all-rounder and not just another handy, low-order contributor with runs. His batting was simply awesome in terms of being choosy about his strokes. I cannot recall Vettori having made a more crucial century in his entire test cricket history. And now it seems that another comeback man in the series, Tuffey, has taken a liking to Vettori's mold and probably for the first time he contributed handsomely with a well-made 80. With a total of 450+ runs on the board, it will take some doing for the Pakistanis to turn the match around as they have to counters Vettori's bowling on a slowing pitch and overcome the first innings lead before even imagining of bowling-out the Kiwis on the final day. For now, it seems like a 2-1 result in favour of New Zealand unless they do something drastic to undermine their chances in this match.

Kiwis just cannot handle Pak bowlers

The final of the three test match series between Pakistan and the Kiwis is underway and it is very clear that no matter how little the Pakistani batsmen will score, their bowlers can always pull the game back, courtesy the poor batting on display by the Kiwi batsmen. It is not just the spin of Saeed Ajmal or Kaneria that they are struggling against, nearly every Pakistani bowler has got his number on a Kiwi batsmen.
Vettori must be scratching his head, trying to find at least two batsmen to bat at the top of the order who can at least play out a session without giving the jeepers to the men in the dressing room. What is amazing is that these are the kind of pitches that the Kiwis have been brought up on and yet, their footwork against swing bowling is almost non-existent. All of them are happy to be perched on the backfoot, waiting for the ball to swing and do something before they commit themselves to a stroke and by the time they do so, their stumps are shattered or they are caught plumb, in front of the wicket. As things stand now, it is again up to the latter half of the lower-middle order of New Zealand to somehow bail out the team, as the top-order has crumbled to Kaneria who has been absent from the wicket-taking scene for some time. Asif first and now Kaneria, it is like a comeback season for the Pak bowlers against suspect, under-par Kiwi batsmen.

Asif's Day of Redemption

You can count upon a Pakistani paceman to deliver when the situation is most demanding and his presence in the dressing room is under scrutiny and these are the two conditions that prevailed when Asif bowled a magical spell to leave NZ at the crossroads of a certian loss. I have often called Asif a McGrath-like bowler although his antics are nothing like that of the Aussie great. Glenn McGrath was never in the news for what he did off the field and Asif seems to have spent more time appearing in court hearing and spending time with his team of lawyers to clear his name from an unending series of controversies.
That apart, he is a magnificient bowler. Even now he is not bowling as fast as he is capable of, seldom touching the 140 km/her-mark but the conditions that prevail in NZ, the moisture and the wind, are making it easier for him to take wickets. Further, the less said about the Kiwi batsmen the better - their footwork is awful apart from McCullum and Vettori and their ability to stay at the crease for even 2 hrs is highly suspect. Even the likes of Ross Taylor don't seem to understand that if they don't deliver, there is no second line of talent or more men in the dressing room to fall back upon - it is time the NZ batsment stood up to the challenge..for the moment though, Great going, Asif.

Daniel Vettori: Improving with every outing

If you talk about a player who is progressing with every outing he makes to the cricketing field, you just cannot help but mention the Kiwi captain - Vettori. His average as a batsmen, particularly in the more demanding form of the game - test cricket, has improved tremendously. At a time, when the team is so short on pure talent and there is little experience to fall back upon, his captaincy and his ability to bail out the team with the bat when the situations is really bad speaks a lot about his courage and his hunger to improve upon himself as a cricketer. He batted brilliantly but then got out on 99, which was purely unlucky but it seems that many more test centuries are sure to follow.