Cricket: Bond well on a course for Planet Hadlee

Shane Bond takes Michael Clarke's wicket.Photo / Getty Images

Shane Bond moved out of the orbit of Ewen Chatfield in one-day cricket and set a course for Planet Hadlee after last night's Chapell-Hadlee 50-over international against Australia.

Bond's 141st and 142nd one-day wickets moved him out of a tie with Chatfield and Jacob Oram as the sixth most prolific wicket-taker in New Zealand ODI history - and he is now heading for Hadlee's haul of 158 wickets to make the top five.

Kyle Mills, with 162 wickets, is next in view although he will presumably resume his highly successful one-day career after his current injury. Ahead of him lie Chris Cairns (201 wickets), Chris Harris (203) and Daniel Vettori the best of the 14 Kiwis who have taken more than 100 ODI wickets with 264.

If Bond remains injury-free - now where have we heard that before? - he stands every show of overhauling Hadlee.

Interestingly, Bond's figures compare well to the man every cricket fan would unhesitatingly nominate as New Zealand's best bowler ever.

Hadlee took his 158 wickets in 115 matches, at an average of 21.58 runs apiece and with a strike rate of 39.1. Bond made 142 wickets after just 79 matches, at an average of 20.96 and a strike rate of 29.3.

That's a compelling picture of Bond's value to the side and suggests he deserves to make it into the top 5.

Australia's Mitchell Johnson has also played 79 ODIs - for 121 wickets at an average of 26.19 and strike rate of 31.6. Scott Styris hasn't taken a wicket in either of the one-dayers against Australia but is still poised to move higher into the top 10 of New Zealand ODI wicket-takers with Danny Morrison just ahead of him with 126 wickets.

Styris has taken his wickets in 163 ODIs; Morrison did so in 96. Nevertheless, it's a strong one-day side that doesn't include one of their leading allrounders in the 50-over game.

Lest we think our bowlers are high on the ODI tree, it pays to remember that Vettori (ranked 17th on the all-time list) is well behind the record-holder - Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan who has 512 wickets in 334 matches.

Vettori is, however, well placed to continue his climb into one-day history as almost all the bowlers ahead of him, save for Pakistan's Shahid Afridi, are generally no longer active, although South Africa's allrounder Jacques Kallis is only 12 wickets behind Vettori.