April 19, 2002	Friday	Safar 5, 1423

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KARACHI, April 18: New Zealand coach Denis Aberhart pinned his hopes on Daniel Vettori and rated him as world’s best left- arm spinner.

“He is a world class spinner and is a very important part of our attack. With an experienced bowling attack, we hope that he will provide that leadership and will be our focus of attacking into the Pakistanis,” Aberhart said.

Vettori, 23, has captured 130 wickets in 35 Tests at 33.10. He is New Zealand’s youngest Test cricketer when he made his debut against England in 1997 at the age of 18.

Pakistan four successive home defeats have been attributed to batsmen’s poor technique to counter quality spinners. In the series against England in 2000, Ashley Giles grabbed 16 wickets on his maiden tour while earlier that year, Muthiah Muralitharan picked up 24 wickets in three Tests as Sri Lanka won the series 2-1.

Pakistan was tormented in 1998 by Stuart McGill when he scooped up 15 wickets in the absence of Shane Warne.

Vettori, an injury prone spinner, missed the home series against Pakistan last year but took 12 wickets against India in India in 1999-2000, including six for 127 in the second Test that India won by eight wickets. That performance against undoubtedly the best players of spin bowling confirms that he could be the biggest threat to the home batsmen.

But despite Pakistan’s fragility against quality spinners, Aberhart was not taking things for granted.

“We are not under-rating them. In fact we respect them and know we will have to bat, bowl and field well to beat them,” he said.

He said he had a close look at the Pakistan batters. “Of course, Stephen (Fleming) has played a lot against them.

“We know how they play and how we play. There are strategies against certain batsmen how to bowl at them. Pakistan batsmen are of high quality and we need to be at their best to turn things around.”