Vettori sings Elliott's praises

Daniel Vettori was delighted with how well Grant Elliott played © Getty Images

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori believes replacement all-rounder Grant Elliott impressed sufficiently in the NatWest Series clash with England at Edgbaston to keep his place for tomorrow’s meeting at Bristol.

Elliott had been playing in the Surrey League but was called up for the one-day series as cover for hamstring victim Jacob Oram.

But he played a leading role on his ODI debut in the rain-affected match in Birmingham with figures of 3-23 with the ball, including the prized wicket of England’s top-scorer Luke Wright.

Now Vettori is recommending he should stay involved with the squad for at least the third game of the best-of-five series even though Oram has recovered sufficiently to be considered for purely a batting role.

Vettori said: “Grant Elliott on his one-day debut was fantastic for us and he probably showed a lot of us up with his ability to bowl yorkers at the end of the England innings.

“Has he done enough to stay involved? Definitely at Bristol. If you put up performances like that, then you are going to remain with the side.

“My recommendation would be for him to stay as long as possible - but he is definitely here for Bristol.”

Elliott was born in South Africa but qualified for New Zealand in 2007 and he made his sole Test appearance to date against England in Napier in March - again deputising for the injured Oram.

Jacob Oram is set to play as a batsman, if fit © Getty Images

Oram is unlikely to have recovered enough to be able to bowl but his destructive work with the bat means he will play at Bristol if fit enough.

Vettori said: “We are going to push Jacob pretty hard over the next couple of days and, with Grant performing as well as he can, there is a place for Jacob to come into the side purely as a batsmen.

“Everyone knows what he is capable of with the bat and he gives us that extra depth. We will look at that and we will reassess him the day before the game.”

Vettori believes New Zealand will go into the weekend clash with their confidence restored at Edgbaston despite rain meaning the game was abandoned when they were on the verge of levelling the series.

He said: “After losing the way we did in the first game at Durham, we got a response from team. That is the thing we will take out of the game. We improved with the majority of things we wanted to improve upon.

“Grant did well, Tim Southee came in at the end and it was really pleasing the way he bowled then while Brendon McCullum played a really mature innings.

“Everyone knows him as a guy who can get us off to a great start but it was a pretty composed innings and he got us into a really comfortable position.

“The fielding was also outstanding. Now we are riding with a little bit of confidence but we’ve got to make sure we take that to Bristol and don’t let ourselves down.”