When Ashley Giles bowls to Sachin Tendulkar for the first time in thisseries, all eyes will be on where his opening delivery pitches. The odds are it will be outside leg stump.

England's tactics against Tendulkar last winter - Giles bowling into the rough outside leg stump, Andrew Flintoff banging it in from round the wicket - added a dash of controversy to an otherwise sleepy series. Giles jogged Tendulkar's memory by serving up more of the same in the NatWest Series. In the final, he bowled him with a ball that pitched well outside leg.

Not everybody appreciated Nasser Hussain's master plan, though: the tactic had most purists cursing and muttering darkly about Bodyline sequels. But Hussain had a different agenda - pragmatism not idealism - and England achieved exactly what they set out to do.

Our graph shows the line Giles bowled to Tendulkar in last winter's Test series, with over 70% of his deliveries pitching outside leg. Giles and Richard Dawson, England's other spinner, both dismissed Tendulkar once - and both conceded 65 runs to him. But while Dawson bowled only 86 balls (and went for 4.53 per over), Giles bowled 216 (1.81 an over). England's plan was to keep Tendulkar in check and chip away at the other end, which their coltish seamers were doing successfully. To restrict Tendulkar to less than two an over on flat tracks has to be good going.

The stakes were raised in the final Test at Bangalore, when Giles bowled almost exclusively outside leg. On the second day he bowled 57 balls, 52 of them outside leg and not one delivery even as far across as middle. On the third day Tendulkar cracked and was stumped for 90. He says this was simply bad judgment, nothing to do with England's tactics. But if it was a coincidence, it's a pretty big one: it's the only time Tendulkar has been stumped in 154 Test innings.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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