Where toss is key, and Tendulkar's drought

When Rahul Dravid won the toss in the Karachi Test, it was supposed to be a crucial early strike in favour of India - in conditions likely to favour seam and swing, bowling first was surely the way to go. The Indians, though, should have taken one look at the toss record at the venue - of the 20 matches which had produced a decisive result here before the last Test, only seven had gone in favour of the team winning the toss. That stat just got a little more lopsided after India's drubbing, making Karachi among the worst venues to win the toss.

In the subcontinent, the soundest strategy is usually to bat after winning the toss, but Karachi bucks that trend as well: in 30 matches in which captains have done that, only twice has the move paid off and brought victory - a miserable conversion rate of 5.26%. On the other hand, the move has backfired 12 times, so what happened to India wasn't exactly a one-off.

At the other end of the spectrum are grounds like the Wanderers in Johannesburg, where winning the toss usually translates into a huge advantage: 75% of all results here have gone in favour of the side calling correctly. Most of the venues in England offer the toss advantage as well - Old Trafford and Trent Bridge are among the top three in the list, while Lord's (57.14% of decisive matches won by team winning the toss) and The Oval (56.60%) rank high as well.

Tendulkar travails
India's comprehensive series defeat against Pakistan has prompted a strong backlash against one of their most valuable assets: Sachin Tendulkar has borne the brunt of the criticism for the loss, and while the tendency to go overboard after a defeat against Pakistan is an old one, there is some justification to be concerned with the form of India's most successful batsman.

With a highest score of just 26 in three tries against Pakistan, this was the sixth time in his last ten series - starting from the tour to New Zealand in 2002-03 - that Tendulkar failed to make at least one century in a series. In his entire career before that (excluding one-off Tests), Tendulkar had suffered such a fate only seven times.

This was also the fifth time since then that Tendulkar averaged less than 30 in a series - he had averaged 25 in New Zealand in 2002-03, 17.75 against the same team the following season, 17.50 against Australia in 2004-05, and 27.50 against South Africa a few months later. Before 2002-03, Tendulkar had finished a series with a sub-30 average only three times in his entire career (excluding one-offs): against New Zealand in his second series in 1989-90, against the same team at home in 1995-96, and versus South Africa the following season. None of this suggests that Tendulkar is past his use-by date, but he desperately needs a strong showing against England to prove that he is among the top batsmen in the world. (Click here for Tendulkar's series-by-series stats.)

ODIs' most prolific openers
With three centuries and 12 fifties in just 30 tries as an opener, Boeta Dippenaar is fast establishing himself as a top-notch player in one-day internationals. His Test stats continue to remain iffy, but over the last couple of years, he has consistently come up with sparkling performances in the ODIs. The latest instance has been the ongoing VB Series, when Dippenaar has been head and shoulders above the other South African batsmen - in the first five games, Dippenaar has aggregated 337 at 84.25; the next-best run tally belongs to Mark Boucher (160).

Admittedly, Dippenaar needs to prove that he can continue his amazing run for a longer stretch to be counted among the best, but his current stats are quite awesome: among all ODI batsmen who have scored at least 1000 runs as an opener, Dippenaar's average of 57.52 puts him right on top of the tree, well ahead of the second-placed Glenn Turner. His strike rate of 70 isn't exceptional, but his role in the team is clearly that of an accumulator, and he's done that job quite superbly of late.