Clueless New Zealand miss Vettori, the batsman

It isn't clear why anyone would want to shoulder arms to a not overly wide delivery from an off spinner on a turning, Day Four wicket, but cricket wouldn't be cricket if it didn't have room for the inexplicable. Speaking after New Zealand's innings defeat at Hyderabad, Ross Taylor said that he — victim of that aforementioned error of judgement — and the rest of his side had failed to get to grips with the mental aspect of playing spin.

Bogged down by Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha, they had stopped, in his own words, trusting their defence and trusting their attacking shots. With doubt dulling his reactions, Taylor had allowed the ball's loopy trajectory to transfix him.

By the time he realised what had happened, he was looking back at a set of stumps with no semblance of their former parallel geometry.

It wasn't a pretty sight. Nor was the scoreboard. It seemed like a long time ago that Brendon McCullum and Kane Williamson were together at the wicket, looking secure against pace and spin, finding ways to survive and finding ways to score runs. It had only been three overs. One questionable umpiring decision — McCullum was given out LBW after appearing to inside-edge the ball onto his pads — and one questionable bit of judgement was all it took to go from 98 for one to 105 for three.

Even without the added pressure of a follow-on, the difference between 98 for one and 105 for three is starker for this New Zealand side than for most teams. Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor have the potential to form one of the best top fours in the country's history, but Daniel Flynn and James Franklin, numbers five and six, both average in the 20s from fairly lengthy Test careers.

... contd.

ALSO READ

T20 format has given cricket a new lease of life: Sir Viv Richards

Punjab Police fail to nail Vijender Singh in heroin haul case

IPL 2013 preview: Sunrisers eye top 4 spot, CSK look to inch closer to play-offs

David Moyes, Jose Mourinho early favourites to replace Ferguson at Old Trafford