REVITALISED fast bowler Brett Lee finished the Australian summer with the type of delivery he's expecting to use frequently in Sri Lanka.
Lee finished off the tri-series in Sydney by bowling Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan with a slowish leg-cutter. It was Lee's third-last ball of the series and where the fiery paceman had traditionally opted for pace as a way of removing batsmen, this time he opted for artistry.
It was a telling ball, as it showed Lee has more to his armoury than 150km/h bullets.
And it's something he plans to do more often in Sri Lanka, where Australia starts a five-match limited overs series on Friday.
Lee has played little cricket on the sub-continent - just three one-day matches in the Champions Trophy tournament here 17 months ago.
He looks at the spin-friendly pitches as "a great challenge" and test of his skill.
"I think your approach has to be a bit different here," Lee said.
"Maybe bowl a few more off-cutters, a few more leg-cutters and maybe a few slower balls in the one-dayers and Tests.
"I'll be chatting with the rest of the guys and seeing what their thoughts are."
But Lee won't give up the thunderbolts that had India's batsmen jumping around the crease in the final stages of the tri-series.
"Obviously the wickets over here are always going to get slow and low but saying that, the ball does get scuffed up a fair bit and the reverse swing comes into play. That's something I enjoy bowling with.
"If you can still bowl the ball over 145kph it's still going to be tough to play."
Lee's high finish in the Allan Border Medal count - he ranked second in the one-day voting behind Adam Gilchrist and fourth in the overall tally - was a poke in the eye for his detractors. And there were plenty of those as he struggled for form after coming back from ankle surgery.
It's the same type of surgery that's keeping Glenn McGrath out of action and Lee struggled with his rhythm in the two Tests he played against India and hit a low point when India mercilessly destroyed him to the tune of 89 runs off 10 overs in a one-dayer at the Gabba.
But Lee turned his season around by hitting a six to win a rain-affected match in Sydney. Where his batting led, his bowling followed and he finished the season in sensational form.
"All in all, I was very happy with the way the 12 months panned out. It really stood out in the Allan Border medal.
"There was a lot written in the papers that I was playing my last game in one-day cricket and I had a bad series.
"I know I had one bad game as far as the one-dayers go but I feel over the past 12 months my one-day record has been outstanding - I've been pretty happy with that."
Lee's statistics suggest he'll continue to be a force in one-day cricket for a while. With 149 wickets from 81 matches, Lee has the second-best strike-rate in the history of the game - behind New Zealand's injury-prone paceman Shane Bond.
Lee claimed to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the criticism, but it sometimes rang so loud he couldn't avoid it.
"I don't try and read the papers or listen to the radios. Of course you do hear about it. And it's amazing what one shot in Sydney can do, it can change the whole thing."