A year ago, the suggestion that Paul Collingwood would win the Man of the Match award in a one-day international for his exploits with the ball was about as credible as predicting that Steve Waugh would get the sack. Before today, Collingwood had taken three wickets in 15 one-day internationals at an average of 101. Then, with a tight match edging towards New Zealand, he took only the second four-wicket haul of his professional cricket life. It was a remarkable turnaround, to which length was the key.

Collingwood verged on the metronomic, bowling 90% of his deliveries (43 out of 48) on a good length. In the other matches of this and the recent Indian series, that figure had been only 70% (110 out of 158).

With the ball swinging gently both ways, New Zealand found Collingwood virtually impossible to get away, so much so that he conceded almost as many runs in wides (6) as he did in boundaries (8).

Indeed, New Zealand's batsmen were in control of only 69% of the shots they played off Collingwood; in the other matches in New Zealand and India that figure was 87%. Poor Chris Harris in particular got himself in a fearful muddle before Collingwood put him out of his misery - his control ratio was a dismal 29%.

It's quite ironic that Collingwood was the matchwinner, given that all the talk in the build-up was of a Napier flyer. But wobbly medium-pacers winning one-dayers in New Zealand isn't exactly unheard of: remember Dibbly, Dobbly and Wobbly, aka Harris, Gavin Larsen and Rod Latham, who spearheaded New Zealand's World Cup challenge in 1992? With Harris one of his victims and Larsen in the commentary box, Collingwood did them proud.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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