I wouldn't say Vettori isn't a spin bowler. He just doesn't spin it much any more.

Um he can't spin the ball but he is still a spin bowler????

Did the insertion of the word 'much' confuse you there?

Funny thing is, way back, people used to say he wasn't a one-day bowler, and there's no doubting his record there ...

Sadly, that's not a coincidence.

I know whch Daniel Vettori, spin bowler, I'd rather have.

Vettori's bowling average last dipped under 30 in his sixth test match, back in 1997. I think what this indicates is that he's a bowler who has never really delivered on his reputation or early promise, statistically speaking.

Funny thing is, way back, people used to say he wasn't a…

More down to Indian bravado (setting silly score, then expecting Franklin to bat like he’s 10 grades below them) than anything else.

Either that…

The simple fact is that Vettori has an average of 40 as a bowler since his back injury all those years ago.

I'm not sure it's quite that simple. Since Vettori came back from injury in November 2001, he's taken 187 wickets at 34.08. Interestingly, his strike-rate during that period…

It was almost as though India suddenly decided that, no, they didn't want to win this game after all. Why they might want to do something like that I wouldn't like to speculate.

Crossed my mind that I didn't want to speculate about it either. It was bizarre, though.

One of my favourite NZ cricketers of all time was a thinking player, a good batsman who captained and bowled slow. Vettori also fits those criteria now.

You miss Geoff Howarth too?

It was almost as though India suddenly decided that, no, they didn't want to win this game after all. Why they might want to do something like that I…

I wouldn't say Vettori isn't a spin bowler. He just doesn't spin it much any more.

Um he can't spin the ball but he is still a spin bowler????

[Vettori's] test batting average over the last 4 – 5 years is almost 40, so on that basis he'd make it…

I understand his test batting average over the last 4 – 5 years is almost 40, so on that basis he'd make it into…

Sums it all up really.

I did have a lot of fun on my first day at the basin, but honestly, we went to the wrong day – should have gone Friday when the weather was nice (Spot the optimistic…

But really, Vettori hasn’t been a decent attacking test spinner in favourable conditions for around a decade.

As mentioned in the commentary on the weekend if you asked just about everyone in NZ cricket to list the 5 best bowlers at the moment, Jeetan Patel would be on every single…

There was water involved and a pedalo as well. But I don't want to go into detail.

One of the immortal lines in cricket history.

You’re partly right. Our batsmen have traditionally been weak against top-class spin; Cult Hero Jesse being a prime example of this. Twice in the series now he’s been totally undone by Harby.

But really, Vettori hasn’t been a decent attacking test spinner in favourable conditions for around a decade.…

Vettori looked barely interested; now, Harbhajan seems unplayable.

Or it could be that our players (unlike the Indians) don't know how to play good spin bowling.

I'd probably have more fun supporting England.

You're probably right. Not much chance of Vettori getting trolleyed and stealing a pedalo

It's interesting just how much more effective Harbhajan Singh is on this pitch than Vettori was. Vettori looked…

The sad thing…

But the insidious erosion of areas where you can actually watch the game over recent years has annoyed me. An extra food stand here (good work on getting in there this year Tulsi), a new scoreboard there, and this year’s irritating innovation of…

As it was the crowd only became excited when Chris Martin hit a four and Ian O'Brien setting a personal best run total (19).

Martin's four over the bowler's head was about the only positive shot I saw from our feeble team all that day.

Maybe he and McIntosh should…

There were tennis balls flying everywhere and yet everyone was able to keep a track on their own one.

Obviously, their Optical Acceleration Cancellation sense allowed them to know where the ball would land and therefore by extrapolating the predicted trajectory, the ball could be continuously optically triangulated to its…