On this day in 1997: New Zealand legend Daniel Vettori makes his Test debut
Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori is comfortably one of New Zealand’s greatest-ever cricketers. He was also one of the most brilliant intellects of his time and his bowling was never about the spin, as it was about the variation. With a plethora of tricks up his sleeve, Vettori was indeed a craftsman and can be easily termed as a blessing in disguise for the Black Caps.
The beginning
New Zealand pitches are never known to favour spinners yet Vettori kept his composure and became the youngest Kiwi to make his debut in the purest format of the game when he featured in a Test match against England from February 6 to February 10 in 1997 at Basin Reserve in Wellington.
The first of the three-match Test series between England and New Zealand has resulted in a draw and Daniel Vettori was handed his maiden cap in the second game. Vettori had a decent Test debut as his first international wicket was former England skipper Nasser Hussain, the same player he had dismissed on his first-class debut only a couple of weeks earlier.
#onthisday in 1977, Daniel Vettori at the age of 18 years and 10 days made his Test debut and became the youngest New Zealand player to play Test cricket.#NZvENG #NewZealand #England #TestCricket #Cricadiu
For all the latest #matchprediction& #livescorehttps://t.co/fraehm80PO pic.twitter.com/Xz6L2CjfzL
— Cricadium CRICKET (@Cricadium) February 6, 2019
The match between New Zealand and England had commenced with home captain Lee Germon winning the toss and electing to bat first. The first innings saw a horrible collapse of the hosts batting line-up as they were bundled out for a paltry total of 124 runs within 48.3 overs. Vettori had remained not out while playing at 3 runs. For England, Darren Gough and Andy Caddick were the pick of the bowlers as they scalped five and four wickets respectively.
In reply to New Zealand’s 125, England racked up a mammoth total of 383 runs on the back of a stunning century by Graham Thorpe. While many New Zealand bowlers failed to keep a check on their economy, Daniel Vettori showed his grit and character by picking up two wickets in harsh conditions at an economy rate of 2.86.
However, in the second innings, New Zealand could score only 191 runs and lost the game by a massive margin of an innings and 68 runs. Though his team couldn’t clinch the game, Vettori was successful in making a mark and introducing himself to the cricket fraternity.
Career numbers
In his glorious international Test career that spanned from 1997 to 2014, Vettori went on to become the eighth player in Test cricket history to pick 300 wickets and score 3000 runs. Overall he took 362 wickets from 113 Tests at an average of 34.36. His best spell in an innings was 7/87 in a losing cause against Australia in Auckland in 2000. As far as batting is concerned, he has a whopping 4,531 runs to his name at an average of 30.
