Cricket: Injury blow to Bond

Shane Bond

All eyes are on Shane Bond as New Zealand attempt to wrestle the initiative from Australia in today's opening round of the three-match Chappell-Hadlee series.

The man who follows Brett Lee and Shoaib Ahktar as the third fastest bowler clocked in world cricket, was last night doubtful after straining his right hamstring at training.

Bond, who has fashioned an outrageous record against Australia in half a dozen previous contests, missed practice with a gastric problem on Thursday and then received an even bigger setback when he turned up to the Eden Park nets yesterday afternoon.

The blow has forced coach John Bracewell to draft in test paceman Chris Martin, who will play the first ODI this afternoon if Bond is not fit.

Yesterday's hiccup was a bitter pill for Bond, whose vertebrae were last year fused together with titanium wire and bone grafts from his hip, before he made a spectacular return to international cricket during the winter tour to Zimbabwe.

The 30-year-old was to later struggle against the better-equipped batsmen from South Africa, but can at least reflect on an impressive record against Australia, providing the cutting edge throughout New Zealand's VB Series campaign in 2000-01, and then snaring six for 23 in the 2003 World Cup match at Port Elizabeth.

Tellingly, Bond's overall record is impressive enough at 68 wickets at 18.75, but his efforts against Australia have been even better - six matches, 22 wickets at 10.45, including two four wicket bags and one of six.

Vettori said yesterday he believed Bond had learnt valuable lessons in South Africa and would demonstrate his progress against Australia if he had a chance, most likely by showing slightly more patience at the bowling crease.

"I mean, 95 per cent of the time he's one of the best bowlers in the world, so I'd be surprised if we don't see some more of that.

"He's a very intelligent man and I think he's learnt from the series in South Africa, where he might have gone too hard at the batsmen. I think he'll pull back and still play that wicket-taking role that he's previously done against Australia."

Vettori said he'd heard that Bond had been bowling "at the speed of light" during the warm-up tournaments at Lincoln, and had also impressed with his effort at the team practice on Wednesday, before receiving a double-whammy this week.

Vettori said that if Bond was to play, he was sure the Canterbury right-armer would stick to what he knew best and would try to get the ball through at good pace, with a minimum or fuss and bother.

"When you're bowling about 150kph, you don't need to say much."

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting agreed with the sentiments, saying Bond was genuinely quick, had a very good record against his side, and would demand a lot of attention in the upcoming three one-dayers.

"He's still bowling quickly and with a similar sort of action." said Ponting. "He has a very good record against Australia so we have to pay a lot of attention to him. He's a bit different to most fast bowlers in that he angles the ball back into right-handers and does it at close to 150km/h.

"He's an out and out wicket taker, he bowls a great yorker, his short ones are quite quick and he's just an awkward customer. Anyone who dips into the right-handers is hard, and he goes across the left-handers and gets a lot of them caught behind.

"At that sort of pace he'll always be dangerous, especially with a white ball, and early in a New Zealand summer, he'll be hard work for us."

Presuming New Zealand jettison James Marshall from the squad of 13 as expected, it seems likely that they'll use someone such as James Franklin as their super sub, as they're loathe to restrict the influence of all-rounders Chris Cairns and Jacob Oram.

Australia have omitted paceman Mick Lewis and nominated leg-spinning all-rounder Cameron White as their super sub, meaning their front-line attack will comprise Brett Lee, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken, Andrew Symonds and Brad Hogg.