9 Mar 2015

Cricket World Cup knockout rounds 'a lottery'

10:02 am on 9 March 2015

The veteran New Zealand spin bowler Daniel Vettori believes the knockout rounds of the Cricket World Cup will be something of a lottery as all teams have potential match-winners in their side, Radio New Zealand reports.

Vettori himself produced a man-of-the-match performance yesterday in Napier taking 4 wickets for 18 against Afghanistan, which gave the Black Caps a 5-nil record in pool A.

The 36-year-old reached the 300 wicket milestone, the ninth player to take more than 300 wickets in both tests and One Day Internationals.

Vettori, who has taken 12 wickets in the tournament at an average of 11.33 and an economy rate of three runs per over, says now isn't the time to celebrate his latest achievement.

New Zealand lost only four wickets in achieving their target of 187 in the 37th over, their fourth straight successful run chase in low-scoring matches, raising some concern that the lack of time at the crease for some batsmen could be an issue in the knockout stages.

Pakistan also showed how dangerous they could be over the weekend, beating South Africa by 29 runs in their rain-affected match at Eden Park.

In a thrilling five-run loss to Ireland, Zimbabwe were also knocked out of Cricket World Cup finals contention on Saturday.

New Zealand's last group match is against Bangladesh in Hamilton on Friday.