Cricket: Reinforcements boost Black Caps for Twenty20s

COLOMBO - New Zealand's reinforcements for the limited overs component of their cricket tour of Sri Lanka swiftly took centre stage once Daniel Vettori's dismissal signalled the end of a lopsided test series with Sri Lanka.

Vettori had barely given his concession speech at the Sinhalese Sports Club Ground on Sunday before Shane Bond and Kyle Mills were marking out their bowling runs on a practice wicket adjacent to the test pitch.

It will be soon be apparent if Bond's imminent comeback to international cricket and Mills, the world's No 2-ranked ODI bowler, fare better against a batting line-up that made Vettori's test seamer's lives a misery.

Bond and Mills take up where Chris Martin and Iain O'Brien left off, the duo are homeward bound for a deserved rest after toiling largely without reward on flat pitches at Galle and the SSC.

Inevitably Bond will be the focal point from a New Zealand perspective when the first of two Twenty20 matches is held at R Premadasa Stadium tomorrow night (12.30am Thurs NZT).

Barring any late hiccups the 34-year-old will play for New Zealand for the first time since November 2007 in South Africa.

New Zealand's most feared and revered quick bowler since Sir Richard Hadlee, Bond's return would have been unthinkable a year ago.

His decision to honour a deal with the Indian Cricket League (ICL), the unsanctioned Twenty20 competition, in early 2008 forced him to severe ties with New Zealand Cricket.

A series of chronic injuries had already seen Bond retire from tests but now less than two years later he is on the brink of making a fully-fledged return to the ODI and test squads.

Bond arrived in time from New Zealand A duty in India to see Sri Lanka complete a 2-0 series win so is well aware of how daunting his assignment will be against high quality strokemakers on run-laden wickets.

Vettori said Bond would play the first of two Twenty20, his presence alone should boost a side that is already more comfortable with the limited overs formats.

While New Zealand battles to take quality test opposition the distance over five days, they are traditionally a competitive ODI unit.

Vettori was pinning his hopes on that continuing after the test side was thoroughly outplayed.

"There's an air of confidence about the team when to comes to the shorter form of the game," he said.

"We've got a number of personnel changes but the core of the group stays the same.

"I think the guys have a real belief in their own ability in the one-day format. As soon as we get to that I hope we'll see a turnaround in our performances."

The four-match Tri-Series involving India replaces five ODIs against Sri Lanka and serves as New Zealand's last match practice before they head to South Africa on September 15 to contest the Champions Trophy.

Ian Butler, Neil Broom, Brendon Diamanti, Peter McGlashan, Gareth Hopkins and Nathan McCullum are the other latecomers.

Meanwhile, New Zealand should finally play before more than a smattering of spectators tomorrow night, the 30,000-capacity match venue is expected to be jam packed.

Security measures have been revised after the Twenty20 clash between Sri Lanka and Pakistan on August 12 descended into chaos outside the ground.

Legitimate ticket holders were baton charged and stoned by police as the crowd turned ugly when realising their seats had been taken by spectators with forgeries.

Ticket authenticity will be checked as fans are subjected to two body searches before they gain admission - at least 500 police and security forces will ring the ground while the surrounding area will be cordoned off.

Although the civil war that raged for more than 25 years is officially over, Sri Lanka Cricket's head of security, retired Maj Gen Lawrence Fernando, said measures could not be relaxed.

"If something happens we won't have any (2011) World Cup matches like Pakistan," he said, referring to the terrorist attack on Sri Lanka's team bus at Lahore in March that has seen the country stripped of games.

- NZPA