Quote:Nobody in their right mind would contend that Steve O’Keefe is even close in spin-bowling skill to Ravichandran Ashwin or Ravindra Jadeja, especially in Indian conditions. He is, after all, 32, made his first-class debut in 2005, and was never able to command a regular test spot. Meanwhile, Ashwin is perhaps the game’s best slow bowler and has formed a most formidable pairing with Jadeja on home soil. And yet the Australian, by some distance, was the most effective spinner on show, capturing 12 wickets in the game. Ashwin and Jadeja took 12 between them.

“A lot of our right-handers – and left-handers – got beaten on the outside edge of the bat,” said Smith. “Those guys are big spinners of the ball, and generally it’s the one that goes straight that gets you in a bit of trouble.”

Cricket is a funny game. Turn the ball a mile and go past the edge; turn it a few inches and find it. Which is the better delivery: the one that turns much or the one that turns little? Which requires more skill on the part of the bowler? Jimmy Anderson, for example, will swing it round corners and evade the batsman’s blade, while Stuart Broad, at the other end, will snatch a bagful of wickets while extracting much less deviation, just enough for the batsman to edge to the wicketkeeper or to the slips. In that kind of scenario who bowled better? Or, who is better: is it the batsman who gets close enough to a particularly auspicious delivery to edge it, or is it the one who, though trying his hardest to make contact, misses it and survives?