Daniel Vettori, the Kiwi cricket legend was born on 27 January 1979 in Auckland. His full name is Daniel Luca Vettori. The legendary bowling all-rounder has captained the New Zealand cricket team in all three formats (Test, ODI, and T20). He was basically a slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler. He is the first slow left-arm orthodox spin bowler to take 300+ wickets in both Test and ODI formats.
Daniel Vettori made his Test debut as New Zealand’s youngest player against England on February 6, 1997, and made his ODI debut against Sri Lanka on March 25 of that year. He then made his T20I debut on September 12, 2007, against Kenya.
The magical spinner has taken 362 wickets at an average of 34.36 in 113 Tests, with an economy of 2.59. His best bowling figure is against Australia where he took 7 wickets giving away 87 runs in an innings and 12 wickets giving away 149 runs in a Test. He also took 12 wickets in the 2004 Chittagong Test against Bangladesh. He is the only New Zealand bowler to take a dozen wickets twice in test matches. He also has a record of taking 10 wickets 3 times and 5 wickets 20 times in his Test career. He became the youngest Test player at the age of 21 to reach the milestone of 100 wickets.
This bowling all-rounder was not bad at batting either. He has scored a total of 4531 runs at an average of 30 in 113 Test matches where there are 6 centuries & 23 half-centuries as well. He also holds the record for the fastest Test century for New Zealand in 2005. As a result, he broke Bruce Taylor’s record that was made in 1969. He played the highest innings of his life against Sri Lanka and he made 140 runs in that innings. He is the eighth player in the history of Test cricket to have scored 3000 runs and 300 wickets in his career.
He has taken 305 wickets in 295 ODIs at an average of 31.71, with an economy of 4.12. His best bowling figure is against Bangladesh where he took 5 wickets conceding only 7 runs. He also has a record of taking 5 wickets twice in his ODI career. He has scored 2253 runs in 295 ODIs at an average of 17.33 with four half-centuries.
He has taken 38 wickets at an average of 19.68 in 34 T20 matches, with an economy of 5.70. His best bowling figure is against India where he took 4 wickets by giving away 20 runs. He also has 205 runs at an average of 12.81 in his T-20 career. He also took 28 wickets in 34 IPL matches which were started from the year 2008.
The legendary bowling all-rounder has played five World Cups for his country. The last one that he played was in 2015 & his team New Zealand became the runners-up at that time. The former New Zealand legend then retired from all forms of cricket and ended his colorful career.
The former Kiwi magical spinner is currently working as the spin bowling consultant for the Bangladesh national cricket team.
Today is the birthday of one of the best bowling all-rounders of all time. Humble respect and love from all cricket fans and admirers of him.
-Happy Birthday Daniel Vettori.
For more exciting cricket news, have a glimpse over Baji!