India v England: how tourists got tactics spot on Alastair Cook played a different game to the rest, adopting a more fronton method, hips aligned more to mid-on, allowing his bat to reach out beyond the pad to adjust to the spin and bounce with his arms and hands, riding the movement. It is a much more flexible position used by some of the South Africans and Australians. Others copied it as the series went on. Also, importantly, England made judicious use of the sweep, a strategic shot employed to disrupt a bowler's rhythm because it is used mainly to a good length ball. There was one rule, though - do not sweep off the stumps, as there is a real danger of lbw if you miss. England's bowling in the first Test was tame. They realised that to make an impact on these sluggish pitches they would have to really bend their backs. James Anderson and the spinners worked hard to get more shoulder and whip into their deliveries. Anderson increased his momentum to the crease, realising extra pace was vital and raised his speed a notch, hitting the pitch hard and looking to reverse swing the ball crucially from just short of a length where what you lose in extra movement you gain in uneven bounce. He also bowled less of an English line and attacked the stumps more as the series went on, using reverse swing both ways to keep the batsman guessing. Monty Panesar focused on coiling and uncoiling his front arm to get more vigour into his action and really pivoted at the crease. Not only does this enhance speed but also adds extra spin and therefore dip to the delivery. The England spinners imparted a lot of side spin to the ball, but Ravi Ashwin and Pragyan Ohja, because they are predominantly "arm" bowlers, only extracted overspin. Therefore they turned it less and at a slower pace. 3) Do the maths For a while now the England team analyst Nathan Leamon has been promoting the idea that the second innings of a Test is the time to bat. Using data processed from a 1,000 Tests he has calculated that batting on days two and three is generally the way to control the match. The ethos is you can lose a Test by batting badly on the first morning but not generally by bowling badly. And if you can keep the team batting first to within 300, you have a high probability of nosing in front and bossing the match. Despite the focus on winning the toss in India, it is a surprising fact that more Tests have been won there since 2000 by the team batting second - reflecting a worldwide trend as pitches deteriorate less and mercurial bowlers retire. This knowledge was reassuring to England as, although they were 1-0 down, they lost the toss and were consigned to the field in Tests two and three, after which they lent considerable weight to Leamon's theories.