More than a few eyebrows were raised when Ronnie Irani was recalled to the England squad, but he has more than justified his place, and his performance with the ball at Chester-le-Street was sensational. Irani got through his 10 overs for just 23 runs, despite bowling exclusively to two high-class batsmen in Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. There was no magic or mystery behind his performance, just a disciplined adherence to line and length that Irani was thought to be incapable of.

As our graph shows, Irani pitched over 90% (55 out of 60) of his deliveries in the business area outside off stump, which allied to his gentle pace and swing both ways made him very difficult to get away. Not one ball strayed as far across as even middle. He also landed 77% (46 out of 60) of his balls on a good length, and only conceded one boundary all day. He even managed only his second maiden in 14 one-day internationals.

Though he is a thrusting, wicket-taking new-ball bowler for Essex in one-dayers, Irani's remit in this series has been to asphyxiate in the middle overs. And he's done it superbly - his 33 overs have gone for only 122 runs. That's an economy rate of 3.7 runs per over. Anything less than four in one-day cricket is very good going. And before this series, Irani's economy rate in ODIs in England was 6.43.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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