Vettori's turn to make an impact

Daniel Vettori's eyes might well have lit up when he saw the effect spin had in the first match at New Zealand's group venue. Kenya's three slow bowlers applied the brakes superbly during Canada's innings at St Lucia on Wednesday and Vettori hopes the pitch will be just as helpful to him against England on Friday.

"What we saw in the match between Kenya and Canada was that everything came to a standstill when the spinners came on," Vettori told AFP. "If you've got spin bowlers and you see that it is turning and slowing up you think it's going to make an impact throughout the tournament, particularly in St Lucia."

Vettori said he was looking forward to his first spell in the battle of the Group C big guns. "I am pretty excited," he said. "John Bracewell [the New Zealand coach] won't leave me alone so I guess he is expecting me to do something out there."

The spin load will not be entirely on Vettori, however, with Jeetan Patel's offspin also likely to play a key role in the Caribbean. "We seem to go in tandem quite well," Vettori said. "Throughout this tournament we will play together for the majority of the time so we will hope it is to the New Zealand team's advantage."

Vettori said it would also be interesting to see how Monty Panesar handled the conditions. "Monty's one of the spinners around the world who's willing to learn, willing to talk to you about anything," he said.

"If you've seen his development over the short time he's played the game, he's obviously taken a lot of advice from what people have said. I think he's a great bowler with a huge future."