For your senses only

We tried something new this last week. Photo galleries have always been popular among readers, and audio has been an integral part of the site for nearly three years. We have now combined the two to produce audio-visual stories. Our audio team, Akhila Ranganna and Ranjit Shinde, worked with deputy editor Alex Brown to put together this multimedia photo gallery on Australia's Test series win in South Africa.

Staying with audio, here's one. Nishi Narayanan came up with a lovely idea for a series where captains are asked questions to test how how well they know their team-mates. Haidee Tiffen, the New Zealand women's captain, was game, and so were her team-mates, who supplied the questions.

Speaking of women, Wasim Akram, who went to the commentate on the women's World Cup without knowing the names of the players, came back mighty impressed. Jenny Roesler, a former Cricinfo assistant editor, who once nursed ambitions of playing for England herself, got him to speak about his experiences Down Under.

Jenny and Nishi, who covered the World Cup with admirable resourcefulness, also got together to produce this delightful Cricinfo XI, on instances when women beat men to the tape.

It was tough not to feel for Bryce McGain when you watched him take a pounding on debut. As Christian Ryan, who has plenty of time for legpsinners, wrote touchingly:

"There came a moment - 5.1 overs into his Test debut was the moment - when you stopped worrying about what might happen to Bryce McGain's next delivery and you started to fear for the next 25 years of his life."

Sidharth Monga, our writer on tour in New Zealand, spoke to three former Kiwi fast bowlers who faded from the scene too soon, to find out why injuries to quick men seems more of a problem for New Zealand than for other countries. His piece is here.

And to round off, a couple from our blogs. Check out, if you haven't already, the first instalment of Andy Zaltzman's Unpredictable XI and Samir Chopra's inspirational story about being in the zone.