The prospect of Brett Lee banging the ball in short at 95 mph may not be particularly appetising for a batsman, but it was South Africa's most consistent source of runs in the first innings at Durban. As our graph shows, South Africa scored 69% of the runs that came off Lee (53 out of 70) off short deliveries. Lee's approach certainly troubled the batsmen - most notably Gary Kirsten, who got a fearsome working-over and gloved a snorter down the leg side - but he may have overdone it: 65% of his deliveries (70 out of 108) were short of a length. A surprise ball is no surprise if it's sent down four times an over.

Lee's performance was a microcosm of his whole career. He was hostile, threatening, penetrative - and very expensive. He went for 82 off 17.2 overs - a rate of 4.7 per over, more than twice the rate of Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Shane Warne, who between them conceded 84 runs - off 38 overs. That's only 2.2 per over.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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