When Shane Bond starts his run up he instils an air of confidence in the New Zealand cricket team -- the bullet-proof feeling that can only be ignited by a world class player

For Bond gives New Zealand something all too seldom found in a country with a small talent pool -- he is a genuinely fast and accurate bowler

He is world class

The policeman turned cricketer has a list of accomplishments to justify his change of career to furnish a reputation as one of the best strike bowlers in the world

Perhaps the most impressive is how New Zealand performs with and without his firepower

When Bond plays, the average opposition opening partnership in a one-day internationalis 28

42, but when he is not there the opposition's opening average balloons to 41

97 And all too often he is not there with his career restricted by a series of crippling leg and back injuries

The frustration tells

"I want to play every game if I can, and hopefully I can get myself ready to do that," he said in the countdown to the World Cup

"It (the pace) is still there," he said

"I don't think I've lost any pace from what I had

As I play more I'll get stronger and be able to maintain it

" Since his international debut five years ago, Bond has only been available for 59 ODIs -- missing more matches than he has played -- and taken 112 wickets at 19

66

His strike rate is under one every 27 balls

He was the second fastest bowler in the world to reach 100 ODI wickets, achieving the feat in 54 matches, one more than Pakistan spinner Saqlain Mushtaq

Australia have always been a welcome foe for Bond, who ranks seventh in the International Cricket Council's top 10 ODI bowlers

Against the reigning world champions he has taken 34 wickets at 13

88

"I know where I can bowl to these guys to get them out

" He started his career against Australia, and posted a New Zealand best six for 22 against them in the 2003 World Cup

Against Australia in the recent tri-series Bond claimed his first hat-trick and only the second by a New Zealander

Although his back soreness resurfaced during that series, he overcame it and fine-tuned for the World Cup with 5 for 23 against Australia in the opening game of the subsequent Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series

Unlike many fast bowlers who maintain impressive statistics by cleaning up the tail, Bond's value to New Zealand is underscored by his statistics which show 75 percent of his wickets are top-order batsmen