We conclude our countdown of the best Test bowling performances on Australian soil since 2000
Top 20 in 2020: The best Test bowling, No.1
We've already counted down the 20 best Test moments and 20 best Test batting performances so far this century, and now it’s the turn of the bowlers!
The same criteria applies; performances have to be from Test matches since 2000 on Australian soil, with extra weight given to those that have come in famous victories for a bowler's team.
Before you get into this countdown, make sure you take a look at our Top 20 batting and Top 20 moments from earlier this year.
Re-live the countdown in full: 20-18 | 17-15 | 14-12 | 11-9 | 8-6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1
1) Mitchell Johnson, 7-40
Australia v England, Adelaide, 2013
Image Id: 6BE1806181D441859338122C24DED50EOutwardly, Mitchell Johnson was riding high after bowling his team to a 1-0 Ashes lead in the opening Test of the 2013-14 Test summer in Brisbane.
But not far below the surface, disquiet continued to rumble.
Despite being crowned player of the match at the Gabba for his nine wickets in Australia's 381-run win, a series of minor annoyances ensured Johnson had his dander up heading to Adelaide for the next Test.
The first of those sprung from England captain Alastair Cook's post-match pronouncement in Brisbane.
"He (Johnson) has bowled well in this Test match, I remember last time he bowled well in Perth and he hurt us there and there's been times in the past when we've played really well against him," Cook had surmised.
At face value, it seemed a benign assessment of accepted facts from England's successful Ashes campaign in Australia three years earlier.
But Johnson interpreted it as a slur upon his ability to back-up after a personal triumph, given his nine-wicket haul at the WACA Ground in 2010-11 was followed by a forgettable 2-134 at the MCG a week later as Australia were humbled by an innings and surrendered the urn.
Furthermore, the 32-year-old queried former Test quick Jason Gillespie's similarly unexceptional view that Johnson might need to alter the length he had bowled in Brisbane when adapting to the traditionally flatter, slower Adelaide pitch.
"I didn't know how to take that (but) if he was having a go at me, I used it as motivation," Johnson would later reveal.
Then, when Australia's squad assembled to begin their second Test preparation at Adelaide Oval (which was still undergoing a major redevelopment), Johnson found there was insufficient space within the practice nets enclosure for him to operate off his full run-up – as had also been the case in Brisbane.
Image Id: 9A3BA33552214844BC81C1B474183E18The left-armer's fixation on proving his doubters wrong fermented for most of the first two days of the Adelaide Test as the home team piled on 9(dec)-570, and then he unleashed at full fury late on the second evening when he ripped a fireball through Cook's suddenly fallible defence.
More than 36,000 fans squeezed into the completed section of the refurbished ground for day three in the expectation Johnson might repeat his Brisbane heroics, and they were treated to one of the more inspired fast bowling efforts the famous venue has hosted.
Like a majority of the spectators on that warm and still Saturday, Johnson took a while to settle in but, when he resumed his second spell immediately after lunch, the fans flocked from the party tents behind the members' grandstand to witness history unfurl, and England unravel.
In the space of a solitary over – his second after the adjournment – Johnson knocked over Ben Stokes (when keeper Brad Haddin backed the bowler's case for a DRS review), Matt Prior and Stuart Broad, all of whom were unsettled by raw aggression and unable to withstand his sheer speed.
Broad misguidedly tried to disrupt Johnson's rhythm by complaining about glare apparently bouncing off the cathedral end sightscreen, but the lengthy delay – during which an agitated Johnson was counselled by teammate Peter Siddle – did nothing to aid the England tailender's cause.
"I ran in with no doubt in my mind that I was going to bowl him middle stump or have him trapped lbw if he got in the way," Johnson recalled in his autobiography 'Resilient'.
"My visualisation was a little bit off. The ball slid a little and knocked over his leg stump."
Image Id: D2AE86819DE641509B79EE81D0EA21D7Graeme Swann survived the hat-trick ball that began Johnson's next over, but the rare feat loomed again an over later when Swann and James Anderson departed to consecutive deliveries, the latter accompanied by a menacingly silent stare from the by-now rampant bowler.
The silent send-off stemmed from the WACA Test three years earlier when, after Anderson's verbal chip at Australia fast bowler Ryan Harris prompted Johnson (Harris's batting partner) to return verbal fire to the England seamer, Anderson gestured at Johnson to 'shut up' upon claiming Harris's wicket.
Tension between the pair had grown after Anderson was involved in a heated spat with Australia skipper Michael Clarke and George Bailey in the final phase of 2013-14's opening Test in Brisbane, prompting Johnson to note "he (Anderson) really wasn't that popular with opposition sides".
"It's not everyone that gets treated like this and it's always for a reason," he added, by way of explaining the now-famous stare.
From 3-111 shortly before lunch, England had plummeted to 9-135 with Johnson responsible for five of those wickets at a personal cost of 12 runs.
Ian Bell had denied the Australian's second shot at a hat-trick, but the speedster returned moments before tea to tilt back Monty Panesar's off-stump and complete England's misery that saw them almost 400 runs in arrears.
Clarke opted not to enforce the follow-on, and instead gave his bowlers until the fourth morning to rest and refresh, at which point Johnson began where he had left off by luring Cook into an ill-advised hook shot in his opening over.
It would be his only wicket for the second innings as Harris (3-54) and Siddle (4-57) tore through the shell-shocked, dispirited tourists to complete a 218-run win and effectively decide the Ashes.
Johnson's second successive player-of-the-match performance lifted him past the legendary Clarrie Grimmett's career haul of 216 wickets and into the top 10 for Australia Test bowlers with 221 scalps.
He would end his career two years later with 313 to his name, but no match meant more to him than his Adelaide Ashes outing.
"From a purely selfish point of view this was the highlight of the series for me and it might be my favourite day as a bowler," Johnson later wrote.
"I have to admit I was a bit emotional walking off.
"I felt like I had achieved what I needed to, that I had proved myself.
"The appreciation of the crowd and my teammates was really special.
"I had a tear in my eye."
Top 20 in 2020: Best Test bowling
20) James Pattinson v New Zealand, Brisbane, 2011
19) Glenn McGrath v England, Brisbane, 2006
18) Anil Kumble v Australia, Sydney, 2004
17) Mohammad Asif v Australia, Sydney, 2010
16) Peter Siddle v England, Brisbane, 2010
15) Rene Farrell v England, Sydney, 2011
14) Glenn McGrath v Pakistan, Perth, 2004
13) Jasprit Bumrah v Australia, Melbourne, 2018
12) Michael Clarke v India, Sydney, 2008
11) Mitchell Johnson v South Africa, Perth, 2008
10) Vernon Philander v Australia, Hobart, 2016
9) Glenn McGrath v West Indies, Brisbane, 2000
8) Mitchell Johnson v England, Perth, 2010
7) Doug Bracewell v Australia, Hobart, 2011
6) Ajit Agarkar v Australia, Adelaide, 2003
5) Mitchell Johnson v England, Brisbane, 2013
4) Shane Warne v England, Adelaide, 2006
3) Dale Steyn v Australia, Melbourne, 2008
2) Nathan Lyon v India, Adelaide, 2014
1) Mitchell Johnson v England, Adelaide, 2013