Daniel Vettori is one of the best left arm spinners to ever play the game of cricket and he has been a great servant for New Zealand cricket for many years and his trademark glasses were always a favorite among all cricket fans. He was also one of the most polite and extremely dignified cricketers around at his time and that is the reason why fans from all over the world loved him and enjoyed his bowling performances immensely.
Like in the case with the other Bowlers that we talked about ,doing a top 5 list of Daniel Vettori is extremely difficult as he has been a champion bowler for the New Zealand cricket team and has won a lot of matches for his nation as well.
Daniel Vettori Bowling Stats:
Categories | Test | ODI | T20I |
Matches | 113 | 295 | 34 |
Wickets | 187 | 305 | 38 |
Overs Bowled | 4,802.3 | 2,343.3 | 131.16 |
Balls Bowled | 28,814 | 14,060 | 787 |
10 wickets in a Match | 3 | - | - |
5 wickets in an innings | 20 | 2 | - |
Best Bowling | 7/87 | 5/7 | 4/20 |
Economy Rate | 2.59 | 4.12 | 5.70 |
Bowling Average | 34.36 | 31.71 | 19.68 |
So let’s look at the Top 5 Best Bowling Performances of Daniel Vettori.
5/30 vs West Indies at Lord’s (2004)
This time period was the peak years of Daniel Vettori in international cricket and he used to churn out match winning performances all the time and this match against the West Indies was no different and this was the final of a tri series and Daniel Vettori helped New Zealand win the match and the series as well. He also got the honor of getting his name in the honors board at Lord’s and this is always a big honor for any player who plays cricket. Not only that he also affected two run outs so this was a very special match for him.
4/14 vs Sri Lanka at Dambulla (2003)
The next performance in this list is a very special performance against Sri Lanka in the year 2003 at the home ground of Sri Lanka as well. They were only Defending only 156 runs in 50 overs and even then Daniel Vettori stepped up for his country and helped New Zealand win a famous match and an unlikely 9 run win was achieved by New Zealand cricket team so this is one performance by the left arm spinner which will always be remembered by all the fans of the New Zealand cricket team.
5/7 vs Bangladesh at Wellington (2009): Daniel Vettori Best Bowling Figures in ODI
This was an extremely one sided match and the figures of Daniel Vettori are proof of that. This was one of those days for Daniel Vettori where everything was going for him and he was just getting wickets at will and it is quite unbelievable that he gave away only 7 runs in this match and he picked up 5 wickets which is among the best bowling spells of all time and he solidified his legendary status once again around the world.
5/62 and 7/87 vs Australia at Eden Park (2000): Daniel Vettori Best Bowling Figures in Test
This epic performance was early on in the career of Daniel Vettori and this immediately catapulted him to the elite of test match bowling and getting 5 wickets in both innings of the test match especially so young in your career is an extraordinary achievement and more so against a very strong Australia team. He proved in this match that he is a very special player and that he is here to stay for a long period of time and among one of his finest performances.
5/59 and 4/74 vs Bangladesh at Chittagong (2008)
This match is known as the Daniel Vettori match because not only did he take 9 wickets in the match but he also scored 50 runs in both the innings which made it one of the all time great all round performances ever. Daniel Vettori completely bamboozled the Bangladesh batters in both the innings and thus he got so many wickets in both the innings of this test match and it was a great learning for the young Bangladesh team as to play good quality spin bowling.
Also Read | Greatest New Zealand Cricketers of all time