Super Dan

Now, I'm not into praising spinners too much, but Dan is a not JUST a spinner.

The man has carried a bunch of club level cricketers into the semifinals of a tournament containing the best ODI teams in the world, and also England and West Indies.
Going by their recent performances, one would be forgiven for thinking that the Kiwis would just curl up and die after Taylor went out yesterday.
But Super Dan was yet to come.
Elliot did make more runs, but it was Vettori who kept the pressure from building too much by ticking off singles, with the odd boundary. Elliot eventually made use of the powerplay and some uncharacteristically loose bowling from Gul and Rana Naved to make the final sprint.

Now, Vettori isn't exactly the prettiest to watch.( i like the table tennis backhand type cover drive though), but the never say die attitude is what i admire. A quality that was present in the team lead by Fleming.
The Kiwis had somehow lost that doggedness over the past few seasons. It was really frustrating to watch them go down so badly even with quite a few match winners in the ranks.

Looks like Vettori has got it back somehow. This is what is called leading by example.

The Kiwis are up against an in form Aussie team in the finals. But if the rest have learned anything from the skipper, I'd ask Ricky not to get too smug