The Demolition Men on the job for Australia

Ashes to Ashes, dust to dust, if Thommo don’t get you, Lillee must.

That poem was written in 1975 after ferocious fast bowlers Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee tore through the touring English, combining for 37 wickets in a 1-0 Test series win.

Forty years later, the lyrics might need a tweak.

Australia’s modern day tormentors share the same first name, a white ball, bowl with their left arm and reach blinding speeds of up to 155kph.

Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc are Australia’s Demolition Men.

Fast, aggressive and most importantly skilful, when the two southpaw speedsters team-up, opposition batsmen shudder and Australia rarely lose.

The pair have played 25 one-day internationals together since they first joined forces in November 2010, winning 18 times and losing just six.

In those matches, the Mitchells have confiscated 89 wickets at cost of 20 runs per victim, striking every 26 deliveries.

And if you think their extra pace and attacking lines make them susceptible to leaking runs, think again, the duo concede only 4.73 runs per over.

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Let’s start with the young gun, Starc.

The 25-year-old, statistically, is the greatest one-day bowler ever.

Starc has taken 81 wickets from just 40 matches, more than any other player at the same stage of their career.

Striking every 23.3 deliveries, Starc owns the best strike rate of all bowlers who have bowled 1000 or more deliveries in ODI cricket.

Under the same qualification of 1000-plus one-day deliveries, Starc’s average of 18.54 is the best of all-time, pipping legends like West Indian Joel Garner, New Zealand’s Shane Bond and Australia’s own Glenn McGrath.

The white ball wizard single-handedly kept Australia in the Eden Park thriller against New Zealand last month, striking six times to record career-best figures and almost pull off the greatest escape since Harry Houdini was in his prime.

Every 3.6 games, Starc takes a haul of four wickets or more. Unfortunately for New Zealand fans, the towering quick has taken two four-plus hauls in his last 10 matches. He’s due.

In a tournament that’s meant to have seen the end of the yorker, Starc has used it to it to incredible effect.

Thirty of his 81 one-day scalps have been bowled, and in this tournament, Starc has rattled the stumps nine times out of 20. 

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Starc ripping out the middle stump of New Zealand's semi-final hero Grant Elliott // Getty Images

His partner is crime, Mitchell Johnson, is the most terrifying fast bowler on the planet.

Consistently hitting 145kph, Johnson’s pace is amplified by his slinging action that deprives the waiting batsman a look at the ball until a moment before it’s hurled towards him.

With 283 Test wickets, 236 ODI wickets, and 38 T20I wickets, Johnson is comfortably Australia’s greatest left-arm bowler.

Thomson and Lillee took 37 wickets between them in 1975. Johnson did it on his own in 2013-14.

Holding the white ball, the 33-year-old is just as destructive.

Johnson is the fourth –highest ODI wicket-taker for Australia, behind McGrath, Brett Lee and Shane Warne, and during the World Cup, he’s captured 12 wickets in seven games.

Incredulously, for a majority of the tournament Johnson was considered to be operating under-par.

But in the semi-final at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Thursday, Johnson returned to his roaring best.

Against his familiar rivals, the pace ace removed India’s key man Virat Kohli with an uncontrollable short-pitched delivery, then after being smashed for six, jagged one back through Rohit Sharma’s gaping hole between bat and pad to light up the bails.

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Pumped up. Australian fans will want more of this // Getty Images

While they share many attributes, the two men go about their business in different fashion.

Johnson is a brute, rumbling to the crease like a tank ready to launch the heavy artillery, grunting and exploding at the crease full of fire and brimstone.

Starc is lissom and lithe, gliding to the crease like the winter wind, unfurling his projectile with supple ease and chilling pace.

Together the pair are dynamic with new ball and old. Johnson has reverted to a first-change bowler while Starc leads from the front with the shiny rock and concludes the innings with a reversing pill.

In their crosshairs for the World Cup final are New Zealand, the only team to have tamed the Australians in the tournament.

If Australia’s Demolition Men have their way today, the lyrics might look like this.

Black Caps and  Kiwis, it’s boom or bust, if Starcy don’t get you, Johno must!