Cricket: One test to define a season

The high stakes for the final clash have overshadowed Daniel Vettori's 100th test. Photo / Getty Images

One test will not define Daniel Vettori's career but it will define his and his teammates' season.

The New Zealand skipper will walk on to a test arena for the 100th time tomorrow but sentiment will quickly give way to the pressing need to restore credibility after Australia exposed a vast chasm between the two teams in Wellington.

"If we perform well here it's been a very good summer. If we don't, people remember what's fresh in their mind," Vettori said. "That will be the two test matches against Australia.

"Our performance here will define our summer. We've got a lot of things to be proud of looking back to the Champions Trophy and we should have won the test series against Pakistan if it wasn't for rain, but people have short memories and they'll remember the game before."

It's unlikely Vettori will be allowed to forget the significance of today's test, where he becomes the second New Zealander to play 100 tests behind Stephen Fleming (111).

"It's exciting, but it's almost got to the stage where I want to get it out of the way," Vettori said. "It's a big test match for us, the last test match of the summer. I'm fortunate that it's my 100th and it's in Hamilton in front of family and friends.

"It's great from that perspective but the bigger issue is us trying to win and it's going to take a monumental effort from where we were at the Basin to turn it around here."

To that end it appears that New Zealand will go in with an attacking line-up, playing three seamers and two spinners, putting huge, and possibly blind, faith in the top seven to score the runs.

Unless Vettori was playing mind games with the media, something he has mercifully steered clear of during his 27-test reign as captain, both Jeetan Patel and Tim Southee will play, meaning no room for Kane Williamson and James Franklin.

That means Patel at No 8, making this the weakest tail among established test nations. It also means little or no protection for Brendon McCullum at No 7, a highly debatable move given he has been New Zealand's best batsman this summer.

"I can worry about it or I could say the top seven need to do their job," Vettori said.

Talk of a green-tinged wicket has not put the New Zealand camp off picking a second spinner.

"It is [green], but it's still quite dry. I think the greenness is misrepresenting the wicket," Vettori said. "I've played here enough times to know that it will probably have a little bit in it early on, but it's not going to be anything too terrible.

"It could be a tough first session but it will get slower and slower as the game goes on."

Groundsman Karl Johnson said the wicket looked a lot greener than normal because the weather meant it had stayed under covers from Sunday night until late Wednesday afternoon.

"That's when the players first saw it. It would have been a surprise to them," he said. All the necessary work had been done to make it a good wicket, it was just the finishing that was a bit off, with Johnson likening it to a well-cooked roast lamb without the glaze.

"It'll still be a traditional-style Seddon Park wicket. It will dry out and start to get lower. That's the tendency with this Waikari clay."

"I think we'll go in with Jeets," Vettori said. "We'll refine the squad down to 12 and still have Kane in that mix, but in the end it's still looking like going in with the five bowlers and me batting at No 6."

Vettori is well aware that the New Zealand cricket public are anxious for a sight of Williamson, the most exciting young player to have emerged from domestic cricket since himself in 1997. They should brace themselves for disappointment.

"I don't think it's a tough call at all. He's here as cover first and foremost and then we want to give him a taste of the environment because we know he's a player that's going to be in the mix at some stage. It's been good for him, he's really enjoyed himself and he's got a feel for it."

Tim Southee will be preferred to James Franklin, who was called in as cover on Thursday.

"We've got to go in looking to take 20 wickets and whilst Tim didn't perform well in the last test, we'll back him in this one," Vettori said.

"He needs to step up in this test and prove to us he's good enough."

Looking at the slip cordon configurations during practice yesterday, it seems likely Mathew Sinclair will get the nod over Peter Ingram.