We continue our countdown of the best Test bowling performances on Australian soil since 2000
Top 20 in 2020: The best Test bowling, 11-9
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
11) Mitchell Johnson, 8-61
Australia v South Africa, Perth, 2008
Image Id: 9CD22DE446664CE695F8CBBEE6FAEFA0By Adam Burnett
The name Mitchell Johnson might reappear towards the pointy end of this list but as far as the man himself is concerned, this was as good as it got.
With 15 Tests behind him and pace partner Brett Lee in the twilight of his Test career, the Mitchell Johnson that arrived at the WACA Ground in last 2008 was emerging as a likely spearhead to guide Australia's pace attack into a new decade.
This performance in Perth, in a match Australia ultimately lost against a high-class South Africa side, marked the true beginning of that rise.
After Australia posted 375, the 27-year-old left-armer removed Neil McKenzie with the new ball then had skipper Graeme Smith playing on 25 overs later.
But the real damage was done in a scintillating spell shortly before the arrival of the second new ball – in the space of 21 balls, Johnson claimed five wickets for two runs, gutting the Proteas middle-order as he drew edges by angling across right-handers AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis, then bouncing out debutant JP Duminy.
His destructive capabilities with the old ball – achieved via pace, hostility and brutal accuracy – when seam and swing had long deserted, had shown Johnson to be an altogether different proposition to his peers.
He returned to make short work of the Proteas tail, claiming another three wickets to finish with 8-61 – the best first-class haul of his career.
Image Id: 2A45F1DFD62143DB964DE2D7819F067B"Generally, your best spells are ones that you don't think about; it just happens, and you get in that zone," Johnson has said since. "It doesn't happen very often – I think the Perth Test in '08 against South Africa, when I got 8-61 (was my best).
"We lost the game, which was quite disappointing, but that spell I bowled, I just felt like I was in the zone.
"I felt really light and easy, I knew exactly what ball I wanted to bowl every time, and pretty much put the ball wherever I wanted to.
"When those moments come along – and there aren't too many of them – you enjoy them."
Image Id: A1AF84A59B104A12BB943C8F49BF11FFOver the ensuing series, and the return trip to South Africa that followed, Johnson inflicted plenty more hurt on Australia's rivals, at one point breaking Smith's left hand in Sydney, before busting the other one a month later in Durban.
In all, he claimed 64 wickets in a 12-month period against the Proteas, at an average of 25.64.
10) Vernon Philander, 5-21
South Africa v Australia, Hobart, 2016
Image Id: 6B9075084BAC477F8F2DFBFE84ABB5A5By Martin Smith
Most of the performances on this list are displays of sustained brilliance over the course of many sessions and days of tough Test cricket, where bowlers have battled their own bodies and mental fatigue as much their opponents.
But in Hobart on November 12, 2016, Vernon Philander’s match-winning display – one that will be long remembered in the history of South African cricket – can be measured in just minutes rather than hours.
With South Africa holding a 1-0 lead in the three-match series and facing an opponent grappling with a four-match losing streak, the opening day of the second Test had barely settled into a rhythm before Philander turned the contest and the series in his side’s favour with his unassuming shuffle to the crease and uncomplicated action.
In just 35 minutes of play - not including a short delay for a passing shower – Australia lost four wickets under heavy skies, three of them to Philander as he expertly exploited conditions that were tailormade for his style of bowling.
Image Id: AF9B663F659348E4AAEED992AD45A047Having benefited from a wild slash by David Warner in the opening over of the morning, Philander followed Kyle Abbott’s dismissal of Joe Burns by finding an edge from Usman Khawaja and Adam Voges in consecutive deliveries, the right-armer expertly nipping the ball both ways just enough to leave the hosts scrambling at 4-8 in the ninth over.
As the nightmare of Trent Bridge a year earlier came flooding back for the rattled Australian side, they were handed a bizarre stroke of good fortune when a nasty mid-pitch collision between Steve Smith and Philander left their tormentor writhing in agony on the ground clutching his shoulder, before he left the field for further assessment.
But Australia’s reprieve wouldn’t last long, with Philander returning to join Abbott in cleaning up the tail, finishing with 5-21 from a little more than 10 overs.
Image Id: 5FDAA922197B4B208B1601FCDE2C63D8It wasn’t the only match-turning spell from a South African seamer in that series or even that match; Kagiso Rabada’s second-innings burst had been the highlight of their first-up win in Perth, while Abbott proved to be a handy ally for Philander in Hobart, taking nine wickets for the match.
But with Australia all out for 85 before 2pm on the opening day, it was Philander’s memorable burst that secured the match and the series.
9) Glenn McGrath 6-17 & 4-10
Australia v West Indies, Brisbane, 2000
Image Id: 2F8D71B3AA5648E69B18787ECB775978By Martin Smith
When the West Indies arrived on Australian soil at the start of the 2000-01 season, their recent demise as a global cricketing powerhouse was quickly laid bare in a series of troubling warm-up matches before the ‘real’ stuff even began.
Heavy defeats to Victoria and Western Australia, where they were thrice bowled out for less than 170, added to concerns the impending five-Test series against an Australian side riding a 10-match winning streak would be a no contest.
But not even the most pessimistic Windies supporter could have foreseen the carnage that would befall their batsmen on the opening day of the series, especially with Australia’s spin star Shane Warne missing the entire campaign due to injury.
Instead, it was the world’s second-ranked Test bowler, the metronomic Glenn McGrath, who swiftly exposed the Caribbean side’s frailties and all but declared the Test summer a no contest inside two sessions.
Having been sent into bat, the Windies moved cautiously to 2-53 shortly after lunch and held hope that any life left in the Gabba surface – which had compelled Australian skipper Steve Waugh to choose to bowl first – would dissipate under the early-summer Brisbane sun.
Instead, the tourists inexplicably lost their next seven wickets in less than 10 overs, with McGrath at one stage taking four of them in 10 deliveries without conceding a run and twice finding himself on a hat-trick.
The most telling of McGrath’s six wickets that day had actually come before lunch, when batting maestro Brian Lara got a thin edge to the first ball he faced (the Australian would go on to claim his rival's wicket for single-figure scores in his next two innings).
Image Id: D499D88F998B4A7097AA594A4327771ELara’s dismissal, prodding unconvincingly at a ball that would have missed the stumps by some margin, was the blueprint that his teammates followed after the interval.
Fellow left-handers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ridley Jacobs both edged McGrath to the cordon, tailenders Merv Dillon and Marlon Black were also caught behind the wicket and when McGrath wasn’t finding the edge, he was beating the bat at will.
He finished with the mind-boggling figures of 6-17 from 20 masterful overs, including 12 maidens, as the hosts were bowled out for just 82 by tea, the fact the Australians secured themselves a 25-run lead by the close of play for the loss of just one wicket only adding to the humiliation.
"I couldn't have asked for a better day," McGrath said. "The West Indies haven't really had a great start to their tour here, and we thought we could put the pressure straight on them. That was our game plan and it worked out pretty well.
Image Id: 1A317AFDD4874BEE86354F263E86B252"My game plan whenever we've played against the West Indies has just been to remain patient, build the pressure up. It's worked in the past so I thought why not stay on that track.”
But there was more to come, both for McGrath and the hapless Windies batsmen. The Australian added another four wickets for just 10 runs in the second innings (as well as another nine maidens) to finish with match figures of 10-27 from 33 overs, which remains the second-cheapest 10-wicket haul in Test history.
More importantly for the diverging fortunes of these proud cricketing nations, it set Australia on course for a 5-0 series whitewash and handed them a record-equalling 11th consecutive Test win, a mark they shared – ironically – with the West Indies.
The baton had well and truly been passed.
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