With 566 runs at an average of 94 - and at a strike rate of 91 runs per 100 balls - Adam Gilchrist was the star of these back-to-back series. Of those, 473 came in the return series, when Gilchrist pulverised the South Africans on their own patch and hoisted his career average up to exactly 60. Our graph shows where Gilchrist made his runs in the six Tests. He scored 60% of his runs (341 out of 566) on the leg side, and 223 of those through square leg and midwicket. Plenty of those came from slog-sweeps, as Gilchrist savaged the South African slow bowlers: he smashed 185 runs off 150 balls from them (that's a rate of 7.4 runs per over) and was out only twice.

Gilchrist was at his most lethal during his effortless 138 not out in the second Test at Cape Town, when Paul Adams ripped through Australia's middle order on his return. Against all the other batsmen Adams took 4 for 25 off 12.4 overs; against Gilchrist he was mauled and took 0 for 76 off a mere 7.2 overs. The frog in a blender was beaten to a pulp.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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