Vettori hails McCullum approach

Brendon McCullum curbed his natural aggressive instincts to play sensibly

Skipper Daniel Vettori believes New Zealand opener Brendon McCullum is showing the adaptability necessary to become a world-class player ahead of the third NatWest Series international with England at Bristol.

McCullum is renowned for explosive hitting at the top of an innings in limited overs cricket as demonstrated by his 158 off just 73 balls for Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League.

But he showed another side to his game when perfectly pacing the Kiwis’ innings at Edgbaston in the second game of the series on Wednesday with an unbeaten 60 before the match was abandoned.

It was a sign of increasing maturity from McCullum in being able to adjust his game to the requirements of different situations.

Vettori said: “Brendon played very well in Birmingham. It was a very mature and composed innings. He had an understanding of the Duckworth-Lewis system and where we needed to be in every situation and he seemed to tick every box.

“It was fantastic to see a guy like that, who is predominantly an aggressive stroke-maker, just settle back and play perfectly in the conditions. It was a fantastic innings.

“It was composed. Right from the outset, Brendon knew the situation in terms of the rain. He read the situation perfectly.

“He is a guy who we all know how destructive he can be. But to compliment that side of his game with thoughtful batting and a composed innings means we have got a very good player on our hands.

“That shows he is capable of adapting to different situations and is the sign that we have got a very good player.

“If you look at the top guys around the world, you can see the way they are able to dictate an innings, and also determine when they are going to go after the bowling or just tick things over. We saw that in Brendon on Wednesday.”

McCullum showed he was capable of adapting to any different situation for New Zealand out on the field

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Vettori insisted there was no bad feeling between the two sides over events at Birmingham ended after England’s slow over-rate contributed to the game not having time to be completed.

He said: “We felt a little bit of frustration at the end of the day’s play. We wish the game could have been concluded whatever result could have happened.

“Is there a bit of needle between the sides? I wouldn’t suggest that. There was some gamesmanship but that is part of cricket.

“We would have done the same thing in the same situation so it’s not an accusation. It’s just a realisation of the events that took place on the day.

“What we will do is look on our performance pretty favourably but we’ve still got to realise we are 1-0 down in the series.”

Vettori acknowledges the Kiwis need to level matters at Bristol if they are to have a realistic chance of going on to win the best of five series.

He said: “I hope there has been a momentum shift with the way we have played in Birmingham but the English side will talk long about how things went and will try and come back pretty hard at us.

“It is a chance for us to respond to that against an England team who will be as desperate to win the game as we are.

“I think this is a key game particularly with the two games in London coming up next week. If we can head up there at 1-1, then I imagine we will be in a pretty good state as opposed to trying to chase things when 2-0 down.

“It is pretty important to us. I know the weather forecast is not great so it may be a shortened match again and we’ve got be to ready for it, like we were at Edgbaston.”

All-rounder Jacob Oram is to be given a rigorous fitness work-out after missing the first two games with a hamstring problem and New Zealand would play him purely as a batsman if possible.

But Vettori admitted Oram was more likely to be fit for the games at The Brit Oval on Wednesday and Lord’s three days later.