KEY POINTS:
Daniel Vettori keeps his eye on the statistics of cricket, but a big one slipped under his radar until yesterday.
His best ODI figures, five for seven off six overs, made him the world's leading one-day wicket taker in 2007 with 43, as New Zealand crushed Bangladesh by
10 wickets to wrap up the series 3-0.
In truth, Vettori would have had to work harder against a pub side than he did yesterday.
Bangladesh were dreadful, out for 93 in fine batting conditions in a picture perfect setting in 37.5 overs.
Brendon McCullum's record-breaking unbeaten 80 off just 28 balls meant no one had to wait long for lunch.
He looked like a bloke who'd suddenly fancied a quick 18 holes before dinner.
New Zealand needed just six overs and it was all over by 2.20pm.
Having won his 16th toss in 20 ODIs, Vettori did what history told him worked, sending the visitors in and once the top was removed by Kyle Mills and Michael Mason, the skipper marked out his run up.
The Queenstown card now reads six ODIs, six wins for the team batting second.
Vettori grabbed four wickets in 16 balls as Bangladesh were whiffed away like dust in the wind.
Forget the quality of the opposition; Vettori was chuffed about the record. Rightly so. New Zealanders rarely figure at the top of world cricket charts.
The alltime record of 69 is held by Pakistani spinner Saqlain Mushtaq in 1997.
"It's exciting for myself and I know the team are pretty proud of getting a Kiwi up at the top," he said.
Vettori didn't count this as his standout year.
He's been happy with his form over the last four or five, particularly in the one-day game.
"A few years ago I was well behind in games vs wickets but now I'm ahead [207 wickets in 206 games] and the average has come down. I wouldn't put it as my best, but it's certainly pleasing."
He praised the fast-medium bowlers for setting the platform with back-bending, lively pace and making life difficult for the Bangladesh batsmen early on.
Then, as he put it, "I snuck in".
New Zealand fielded sharply. The ground work was generally on the mark, Scott Styris had a good catch at slip, and Chris Martin took a fine low catch at third man to end the innings.
Then McCullum waded in and everyone went home happy.
Well, almost everyone.
"We're embarrassed by it," Bangladesh coach Jamie Siddons said. "I'm not sure why it happened."
The teams head to Dunedin today to prepare for the first of two tests, starting on Friday.
Bangladesh have got worse as the ODI series progressed.
You wonder how bad things might get.
* BANGLADESH
T Iqbal c Styris b Mason 13Z Siddique b Mills 1M Ashraful c Oram b Mason 25A Ahmed c Sinclair b Vettori 19T Imran c McCullum b Oram 1S Al Hasan b Vettori 10F Reza std McCullum b Vettori 12M Rahim b Vettori 0A Razzak c Martin b Mills 6M Mortaza b Vettori 2S Hossain not out 0Extras (1lb, 3w) 4-Total (all out, 37.5 overs) 93Fall: 1/3, 2/41, 3/44, 4/46, 5/73, 6/74, 7/78, 8/85, 9/93, 10/93.
Bowling: K Mills 8.5-1-27-2 (2w), C Martin 10-4-22-0, M Mason 8-2-21-2, J Oram 5-0-15-1 (1w), D Vettori 6-2-7-5
* NEW ZEALAND
J How not out 7B McCullum not out 80 Extras (4b, 4w) 8-Total (for 0 wkts, 6 overs) 95Bowling: M Mortaza 2-0-20-0 (4w), S Hossain 2-0-38-0, S Hossain 1-0-16-0, A Razzak 1-0-17-0.
Result: New Zealand win by 10 wkts, win series 3-0.
