Chris Rattue: Dodgy hamstring does team a favour

Daniel Vettori. Photo / Getty Images

Daniel Vettori's timing was near perfect. If ever the veteran New Zealand spin bowler was to pull out through injury on the eve of a test match, Hobart was the place to do it.

Leaving allrounder Vettori out would have been be like dropping Richie McCaw. You don't even think about it - especially as Vettori often provides a substantial portion of New Zealand's runs.

Trent Boult would have been carrying the drinks and plasters and magic spray had Vettori not twanged a dodgy hamstring in the warmups.

But with Vettori's low spin accuracy and subtleties missing, the four-man pace attack worked a treat on a pitch prepared by a groundsman who was probably not a top order batsman in his day.

One of cricket's many mysteries is how the shape of the game is left in the hands of these tractor drivers/soil scientists.

If we are to believe the standard line, officials don't whisper instructions in a groundsman's ear, leaving the pitch conditions and thus the fate of nations in their hands.

The Hobart pitch was a grassy, lively number.

With swing in the air, a bloke like Richard Hadlee would have been unplayable on that track.

New Zealand's pace attack of Chris Martin, Boult, Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell did a terrific job of taking advantage, sharing the wickets about.

Boult, who can bowl quickly, looks a real prospect.

They were too good for an under-pressure Aussie batting lineup in the first innings and the way this test has played out, you could say that Vettori the spin bowler was not overly missed in a game that never got close to a crumbling fifth day pitch.

It also made you wonder whether his automatic selection should always be so automatic, depending on conditions. That Hobart pitch was too good for most of the batsmen. In the T20 era, fewer players have the patience, technique, concentration or attitude to conquer such a surface anymore. The default instinct is attack, to a fault.

Australia's batting is vulnerable because they don't have an opening partnership to rely on anymore, the very business that has brought New Zealand cricket down for such a long time. Brendon McCullum - who just isn't a test opener - is the latest player to have his full potential burned by this problem.

The second test has been an excellent contest of wall-to-wall action, following a decent duel in Brisbane. Long may test cricket keep battling on, one way or another.

Low scoring knockabouts are also preferable to the long-winded draws - often played out on dead wickets - that dragged cricket down many years ago. In the age of fast living and instant gratification, three day tests aren't so bad either. But from a batting point of view, the standards have been - in the main - alarmingly low.

Interesting appointment

Auckland rugby has made its most interesting coaching appointment for many years. Paul Feeney, the ex-North Harbour fullback, will assist the born-again head coach Wayne Pivac, it was announced over the weekend.

Feeney has done the hard yards through the club and representative avenues, along with undertaking a few overseas assignments. Insiders often told me they felt Feeney had a special coaching ability. The trouble was - and this is a few years ago - Paul "Rat" Feeney's reputation as a crazy character in his playing days may have scared at least one employer off.

A certain North Harbour administrator told me he was shy about promoting Feeney although in hindsight, his reputation as a loon left Feeney as a paragon of virtue compared to the pokie machine shenanigans that were going on in the Harbour head office.

There is vast untapped talent in Auckland rugby and I wish Feeney well as he sets about mining the possibilities and trying to hone the city's rugby magic.