KEY POINTS:
Forget what happened in the one over extra time game, Daniel Vettori is a gem.
His display with the ball during the main event was simply inspirational. Four overs taking three wickets for 16 in Twenty/20 cricket is quite outstanding and it changed the game - because, before Vettori bowled, the West Indies were in total control. He will prove the difference between the two sides come the one-day internationals.
Right now he sits in second place on the ICC ODI bowler rankings behind Australia's Nathan Bracken. It's a mark of respect for Vettori that he finds himself at No 2. If opposition batsmen didn't pay him so much respect, he would be firmly at No 1.
Bracken bowls with a new ball and then again at the death stages when, in both instances, batsmen are attacking. The aggressive nature of the situation he bowls in makes him a wicket taker.
On the other hand, Daniel Vettori bowls in the middle where wicket retention is still valued, and because he is seen as a major threat he is treated with caution and other bowlers are targeted. Perhaps this is where that magnificent "carrot ball" has come from.
Two of Vettori's three wickets in the Boxing Day fixture came from 78 kph slower balls that dragged big shots out of the batsman and ultimately a mistake.
Fans have heard in volume of Vettori's variation but you simply cannot overstate the skill involved in bowling a slower ball that still has enough revolutions on the ball to make it a threat.
Most slower bowlers will use a faster ball as a variation and struggle to develop a genuine slower ball - but not Vettori.
In the modern limited overs game, variation is just as important as accuracy at the top level and variation is undoubtedly Vettori's competitive advantage.
However, before I get accused of being a total Vettori sycophant, the predominance of one-day cricket, and the way his bowling has accordingly developed, may be the reason for his comparative lack of test match success with the ball.
Bangladesh aside, nations have tended to sit on Vettori in test cricket, looking to score from those around him. Vettori has thrown everything at them, arguably overdoing variation and thus rendering it less effective.
It was right for Vettori to take the responsibility of bowling in the one-over decider last Friday night but the nature of that challenge made the carrot ball an unacceptable risk. He couldn't get the "slider" in the right place and with the form Chris Gayle is in right now, Vettori was always up against it.
As for the one-over concept, I quite like it. It is cricket where a bowl-off is not. The one-over game is a contest between bat and ball and so more appropriate than merely target practice for bowlers.
The bowl-off married mirth with pressure which seemed to entertain but it's gone now, so be it.
