That was the summer that was.

When this summer's New Zealand tourists are old and grey, they will rock in front of the fire and say "Shut! How dud we lose at Old Trafford?"

Man on the most misleading mission

Heck, we all did it. We all declared that Ian Bell's 199 against South Africa at Lord's was his very own Rubicon, the moment a boy became a man. But we were overlooking one crucial detail: he was out one run short of a double-century - trying to hit Paul Harris back over his head! What happened next was agonisingly predictable: scores of 31, 4, 50, 20, 24 and 4 suggested Bell had crossed not so much as the Rubicon as the Wandle. The Spin still says he'll score 8,000 Test runs at an average of 45, mind. (Latest figures: 2,923 at 42.36).