Seven men around the bat

Daniel Vettori bowled early against Australia. He bowled even earlier against Afghanistan. To facilitate a change of ends for Tim Southee and Trent Boult he came on for the third over. It took him just one ball to make an impact, sliding one through a sizeable gap between Usman Ghani's bat and pad to take him to 299 ODI wickets. Ghani was not the first batsman among those victims to make the mistake of playing for more turn than eventuated from Vettori.

Vettori was doing a passable impression of the earlier spells in the tournament by Southee and Boult as he ran through Afghanistan. Having removed Mohammad Nabi and Afsar Zazai in consecutive deliveries, Brendon McCullum brought out another page from his attacking-fields manual. For the hat-trick ball there were seven men around the bat and short fine-leg not much further away. Only mid-off was saving a single. Najibullah Zadran safely blocked the delivery but it still made for a terrific photograph.

Najibullah swung Southee's first ball back into the attack onto the roof of the stand at deep square-leg. A new ball was required. Next delivery he tried to repeat the shot, but this time got more elevation than distance. So much elevation that it almost needed clearance from NASA for re-entry. Underneath, as the ball returned to earth, was Martin Guptill but having steadied himself he could not hold on, much to the annoyance of one of New Zealand's best fielders.

Just to emphasise how superb Guptill often is in the field, he almost produced what would have been the run-out of the tournament. Samiullah Shenwari drilled a fierce drive against Corey Anderson into the off side and thought it had gone through the ring. Instead, Guptill flung himself low to his left at short cover, collected the ball, switched it to his right hand then pinged it towards the stumps. Shenwari was well out of the crease, but the ball missed and ended up costing an undeserved overthrow.

Blows to the head make people pause and hold their breath these days. Shenwari was shaken up by a crack on the back of his helmet from an Anderson bouncer. Initially he tried to brush it off, but there was a significant dent in the back of his lid which showed the pace of the knock. First of all he changed helmets but then during the next over needed further treatment as he went down on his knees at the non-striker's end. The physio applied some ice but it was the sort of blow that raises the issue of concussion awareness in cricket.

Hamid Hassan bowls a good yorker. It was on display at the WACA where he managed an economy-rate of seven an over amid the onslaught by Australia. In Napier he was millimetres away from taking Brendon McCullum's off stump with a gem of a delivery. Homing in on the popping crease, it was going underneath the bat but grazed the toe end which deflected it just wide of the timber. Afghanistan went up for the caught behind, and high-fives started, but replays confirmed the ball had gone into the ground.

Kane Williamson's lofted drive against Australia will forever be etched in New Zealand history. But they don't have to go in the air to make them look fantastic. Facing Shapoor Zadran in the 11th over, he leaned forward into a cover dive and threaded it through a tightly packed off side between short cover and mid-off. Textbook perfection.