How Vettori saw off India's quick men

Daniel Vettori's dogged innings of 60, off 129 balls, ensured that New Zealand sailed well past the follow-on target, and more importantly, used up valuable time, which may eventually prove critical to the outcome of the match. Sourav Ganguly might have missed a trick when he persisted with Zaheer Khan and L Balaji against him, instead of relying on his spinners.

Vettori scored 19 off 70 balls (strike rate of 27) against Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Against the seamers, his strike-rate was almost three times as much (36 of 46 balls). Zaheer and Balaji hardly pitched the ball up, and on an agonisingly slow pitch, Vettori had ample time to work the ball square of the wicket. Zaheer didn't test Vettori with a single yorker and continued bowling short.

Length bowled by medium-pacers to Vettori

Vettori was fairly comfortable against the 26 good-length balls bowled to him, and worked the ball off the square mostly off the back foot. Against the medium pacers, he scored 18 runs off 9 balls when he was on his back foot, and even when he showed minimal footwork he succeeded in scoring 7 off 15 balls.

Vettori's footwork against the medium-fast bowlers Balls (Runs)

Vettori was finally dismissed by Anil Kumble and left India with a lesser lead than they would have liked and lesser time to force the issue.