New Zealand's Daniel Vettori backed spinners to have a crucial role in the remainder of the World Cup on the Caribbean's slow pitches.

Vettori took 4-23 while fellow slow bowler Jeev Patel snagged 2-32 as the Black Caps went to the top of the Super Eights table with a comfortable 129-run win over Ireland on Monday.

"It's nice to see spinners playing an important role and it's good to see us playing two," said Vettori who now has 12 wickets in the competition - the same number as fellow spinners, Australia's Graeme Hogg and Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan.

Vettori and Patel took their wickets late in the Ireland innings as the World Cup debutants collapsed from 110-3 to 134 all out.

New Zealand, like defending champions Australia, have a maximum eight points and are virtually guaranteed a semi-final place although their remaining three Super Eights matches are against Sri Lanka, South Africa and the Australians.

"I'm not a big spinner of the ball, so I mixed up my pace today and used some drift. Hopefully I can carry this form into the big matches we've got coming up."

New Zealand made 263-8 from their 50 overs with opener Peter Fulton being named man of the match for his 83 before Brendon McCullum (47) James Franklin (34) accelerated the scoring rate late in the game.

"260 was always going to be tough for them, but we still managed to turn the screw," said Vettori.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming paid tribute to Fulton.

"Fulton's innings was important because things were not going too well around him. I guess his 83 held things together and we were able to post a competitive score once we got some hitting at the end," he said.

"Ireland did exactly what we thought they would do. They put pressure on us and we weren't good enough to get partnerships in the middle.

"Vettori did a terrific job. He's not a massive turner of the ball, but his subtleties with pace and variation are very, very good. And he used that to great effect today."

Ireland skipper Trent Johnston admitted the game got away from his team in the closing stages of the New Zealand innings.

"After the first ten overs I thought we bowled particularly well. We kept them down until around the 43rd over and then they got on top of us," said Johnston.

"It's one thing we've been working hard on (death bowling) but we didn't execute those plans today. All credit to New Zealand. They are a very good team and will be one of the favourites to win this competition."

(Article: Copyright © 2007 AFP)