Cricket: Vettori admits deficiencies are 'a worry'

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori knows that one amazing victory can't mask the cracks that appeared in his team's Chappell-Hadlee Trophy cricket series loss to Australia.

Vettori's level-headed leadership during the series in place of Stephen Fleming was on show after his team's stunning two-wicket win here on Saturday, admitting there were weaknesses that needed to be addressed quickly.

At the head of the list was bowling at the death, with the tourists having carted the Black Caps for 65 runs off the final four overs in the second match at Wellington on Wednesday and 125 off the last 10 on Saturday.

The Black Caps batsmen fell two runs short of hauling in the 322 at Westpac Stadium and performed in an even greater stratosphere at Jade Stadium by reaching 332 for eight to win with the world record for a successful second innings chase.

The superb batting returns couldn't hide ordinary series for Canterbury stalwarts Nathan Astle and Craig McMillan and the Marshall twins, Hamish and James -- who all failed to flatter on the recent tour to Zimbabwe and South Africa. The four specialist batsmen failed to better 27 in 11 innings among them against Australia.

However, their shortcomings were offset by excellent batting returns for Lou Vincent, Scott Styris and middle order trio Chris Cairns, Jacob Oram and Brendon McCullum.

While there aren't many obvious candidates to try in the next series against Sri Lanka in three weeks, Vettori said death bowling would be fully addressed.

"It is something we need to work on because we can't consistently allow those sorts of scores to be put on the board when we've done such a good job leading up to those last few overs," he said.

"The last two games were a bit disappointing. You look at how good the wickets were but you also have to look at the fact we missed and we probably missed consistently.

"All you ask of your bowlers in those last couple of overs is finding the blockhole and restricting them to twos. If they get away with four, that's fine, but the ones that leave the building (six) are the tough ones to swallow."

New Zealand's successful chase on Saturday was all the more remarkable because of their low state after Michael Hussey's unbeaten 88 in 56 balls carried Australia well beyond what the Black Caps had envisaged.

"One of the biggest things in cricket is momentum," Vettori said.

"So when they came out and hit 70-odd off the last four overs, they take all the momentum away from you and you are quite deflated when you come off the field."

There are several options available open to coach John Bracewell and Stephen Fleming, who should reclaim the captaincy from Vettori for the Sri Lanka series.

One is to hope pace bowler Shane Bond recovers in time from the hamstring strain that ruled him out of the Australian series.

Another is to employ New Zealand's two least expensive bowlers in the series -- medium pacer Scott Styris or left-arm spinner Vettori -- "deeper" in the innings.

Vettori said he been wary of bowling Styris beyond his seven overs on Saturday, believing he may come in for more stick than quicker seamers Kyle Mills and Chris Martin.

"I suppose if you look back and reflect, maybe it might have been nice for Scotty to go 1-2 more," Vettori said.

"It was probably one of the few things that I would have changed."

Vettori unusually bowled the final over at Wellington and wouldn't rule out performing the role again.

"Certainly on wickets which slow up a bit I can go deeper. I don't always want to, I probably have to want to do it more."

Vettori still wasn't inclined to change the batting order, even though wicketkeeper McCullum and allrounders Cairns and Oram all performed strongly in the series -- the latter pair much better with the bat than the ball.

New Zealand's win over the world champions sees them climb from seventh to the fifth in the International Cricket Council one-day rankings.

- NZPA