Vettori scare not as bad as it first seemed

Left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori threw a scare into the CLEAR Black Caps camp during their game with the ACT Invitation XI at Manuka Oval in Canberra today.

Vettori turned his ankle while attempting to field a hard-hit drive in the 18th over of the innings and was down for the count and had to be stretchered off the ground and taken to hospital for an X-ray.

However, it was revealed he had not broken the ankle and has suffered a ligament strain leaving the ankle badly sprained.

Vettori is only returning to anything above one-day play after recovering from a stress fracture in his back last year.

New Zealand team management are not rushing their response, preferring to wait until tomorrow to see how the ankle comes through the night.

New Zealand manager Jeff Crowe said: "We've been advised by the experts that by tomorrow we'll have a much clearer indication of just how bad the sprain is.

"Obviously it's a concern, but we're going to wait and see how Dan progresses over night rather than speculating at this stage about different scenarios."