Cricket: Sharp Vettori lights up tourney

Dean Brownlie managed a quick-fire 16 but looked heavy-legged. Photo / Getty Images

The newly-minted 'Super Smash' Twenty20 tournament got under way in Hamilton yesterday.

New Zealand Cricket has done its best to hype the league - which involves the country's domestic sides playing double-headers over both days of the weekend - but the banks and the bleachers at Seddon Park were depressingly bare.

Which was a shame, because the day's two games - the first between Northern and Wellington, the second between Auckland and Otago - promised plenty in terms of on-park talent and broader intrigue. A certain Jesse Ryder was going to be involved, after all.

In the first game, Northern meandered to 157/8 off their 20 overs after a late flourish from Travis Birt (44).

It seemed a good 25 runs short of par, but Wellington struggled to get anything going in reply, finishing with 131/9 thanks to some parsimonious bowling from Northern's Daniel Vettori and Anton Devcich, who picked up four wickets.

For all the merits of the contest, it was hard to resist the mind's straying to the wider issues involving the Black Caps.

Northern's Dean Brownlie is one of those fringe players for whom every innings he plays is vital to his selection chances.

Brownlie never fails to look stylish guiding a ripe half-volley to the fence, but he is all at sea when the ball is doing anything remotely threatening. He managed a quick-fire 16, but unless he can find a quick fix for his foot movement problems he is going to continue to struggle.

Another man in the spotlight is Vettori. The South Africa series showed he's lost nothing in the bowling department, but his turns at bat were dreadful.

Last night he came good. In a late cameo, he hit a four off his first ball which was vintage Vettori, running it through the vacant slip area. That gave him some confidence, and how heartening it was to see him do his shtick - noodling cheeky singles, showing all three stumps, and hoiking full balls outside off over cow corner.

Auckland won the second game in a tight finish. Set 168 to win, Otago needed 13 off the final over, but fell two runs short after bowler Mitchell McClenaghan held his nerve to close out the game.

The match involved an intriguing head-to-head between Auckland's Martin Guptill and Otago's Ryder, two men vying for a Black Caps opening spot. In short, Guptill won, hitting a classy 64 off 54 deliveries.

Ryder whacked an enormous six off the second ball he faced, and short-arm jabbed the next one down the ground for four. Immediately his class was on show. But he got too cute too early, and was bowled trying to hit a McClenaghan full delivery over fine leg. It seemed an awful waste.