Football is England's winter sport, cricket the summer sport, but the lines between the two have become increasingly blurred. Two years ago the word "finisher" meant Alan Shearer, not Michael Bevan, and today Ashley Giles played his own game of two halves. In his first five overs Giles took 0 for 35; in his last five he managed 5 for 21, and virtually won the match on his own. As our graph shows, the biggest difference between Giles's two blocks of five was the line he bowled. Early on he pitched outside either off or leg stump, giving Sourav Ganguly in particular room to free his arms and dump him over midwicket, which he did for three big sixes.

In those first five overs Giles pitched only 30% of his deliveries between off-and-middle and leg-and-middle (9 out of 30). In his last five overs he managed 46% on the same line (14 out of 30). With India grabbing only 3 runs off those 14 balls, it was the crucial difference. In the first five overs, 18 runs came through midwicket (3x6 from Ganguly); in the second five there was only a single run in that area.

Just as tellingly, in the first spell the batsmen were in control of exactly 90% of the shots they played against Giles. In the second spell of five overs that figure was down to just 61%.

Giles's five-for was only the fourth ever taken by an England spinner in 341 one-day internationals. But don't blame him. Since making his debut in 1997, Giles has played in only 11 one-dayers and missed 68. It's a ratio that should well improve after this performance.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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