Patel spreads cheer

That Min Patel is bowling with anything remotely resembling consistency is a cue for at least three cheers. "After Christmas everyone here thought his career might be over," says chief coach Simon Willis of Patel, the left-arm spinner who is 34 in July and this year's beneficiary. Given a preposterously wide berth by Lady Luck since appearing fleetingly for England in 1996, he missed the entire 2003 campaign with a prolapsed disc; then the disc came out of line. Initially this paralysed him down the right side: the ensuing muscle deterioration, crucially, deprived him of the strength to pivot.

"He was falling over his front leg and drifting down leg side," says Willis. "Dave Fulton and I sat him down and said, `Right, this club needs you; we've got to give this a go.' So we sent him to the best people in London: that seemed to do the trick. Since then he's been getting up and over, getting more spin and dip. A torn groin and then a hamstring set him back but he's absolutely over the moon just to be playing."

Fulton said in March of Mohammad Sami: "I'd rather he played 75% of the time and won us 60% of those games than bowl medium-pace." How could the captain have guessed - how could anyone have guessed - that Andrew Symonds would match him wicket for wicket?

Moment of the month Symonds' runs and wickets