The Spins 2008

Lawrence Booth, in his blog in the Guardian, puts his spin on some of the highlights of 2008, such as Jason Krejza's 'lucky' debut, and Shivnarine Chanderpaul's 'unnoticed' brilliance.

Before Shivnarine Chanderpaul made a first-ball duck in Napier recently, his previous nine Test scores had been 86* (v Sri Lanka), 118, 11, 107*, 77*, 79*, 50 (all v Australia) and 76 and 126* (v New Zealand). His Test average for 2008 was 101. But then we shouldn't be too surprised: in 2007 he averaged 111. And yet how many people would include him unthinkingly in their World XI? If England think their next six Tests are going to be a breeze, they can think again.

Paul Holden, in his blog Sideline Slogger, picks out some of New Zealand's highs and lows of the year.