We start our countdown of the best Test bowling performances on Australian soil since 2000
Top 20 in 2020: The best Test bowling, 20-18
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
20) James Pattinson, 5-27
Australia v New Zealand, Brisbane, 2011
Image Id: 3351677AAFC0432DB07BE0E186FE2F96By Adam Burnett
James Pattinson had only played nine first-class games. He was only 21. His career bowling stats read: 32 wickets at 28.22. He was fast, and he looked a little angry, that kind of fast-bowler angry that many a good judge deems requisite for greatness. And so he was handed a Baggy Green for the 2011-12 summer opener against the Black Caps.
Australia never seem short of pacemen. In the preceding five years, however, since the retirement of Glenn McGrath, they had debuted what history can now determine a hit-and-miss roll call of quicks: Mitchell Johnson, Peter Siddle, Doug Bollinger, Ben Hilfenhaus, Clint McKay, Ryan Harris, Peter George, Trent Copeland and Pat Cummins.
But December 1, 2011 was a particularly exciting day for fans of fast bowling, because Pattinson wasn't the only 21-year-old tearaway debuting. From the other end, a gangly left-armer named Mitchell Starc was also turning out in his maiden Test.
As it happened, Nathan Lyon out-bowled them both on day one, taking four wickets as the Kiwis posted 295 after electing to bat first.
In reply, Michael Clarke's 139 steered the hosts to 427 and gave them a decisive advantage in the contest.
Pattinson was about to make it much more decisive.
The young firebrand had been pasted all over Allan Border Field a week earlier by opener Brendon McCullum, but as the shadows stretched across the Gabba late on day three, he tasted sweet revenge.
Image Id: A4B8A7F3699649E18E8D2A8A630B4871A short-of-a-length 145.7kph delivery pitched and angled perfectly into the right-hander, forcing him to play. It straightened just enough, kissed the edge of McCullum's bat, and flew to the safe hands of Ricky Ponting at second slip. Pattinson was cock-a-hoop.
The fourth morning brought with it utter mayhem.
In Pattinson's first over – just the second of the day – he accounted for the Kiwis' other opener, Martin Guptill, who fended another rapid delivery tamely to short leg.
A young Kane Williamson, playing his first Test in Australia, survived one ball before launching an ambitious drive, the edge from which was happily snapped up by Ponting.
Image Id: 98D998A54876430F8B99E01825D8A494From the next ball, Black Caps skipper Ross Taylor looked beaten for pace as he half-heartedly attempted to play a fuller, swinging delivery well outside his off stump, only to edge through to wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.
Just like that, the heart of the Kiwis' batting order had been ripped out. Pattinson took his fifth wicket a short time later and the tourists were rolled for 150, leaving Australia's bats to finish off a nine-wicket win.
On debut, Pattinson was a worthy player of the match.
But due to a much-publicised battle with his own body, he has played just 20 of Australia's 94 Tests since.
19) Glenn McGrath, 6-50
Australia v England, Brisbane, 2006
Image Id: 00AB1EEC11F145869CA5ED938416390ABy Adam Burnett
If the 2005 series was a thrilling anomaly, the first Test of the 2006-07 Australian summer at the Gabba was a comprehensive return to a long-established Ashes norm.
And it was the usual suspects who were responsible.
After Ricky Ponting's blitz led Australia to a total of 9-602 declared, the baton was passed to Glenn McGrath to do what he did best throughout his career: take English wickets.
McGrath had famously missed Australia's only two defeats of the preceding year's Ashes, the results instructive as to his influence. In fact, in his 25 previous Tests against England, he had lost just four times, including three dead rubbers.
But by November 2006, McGrath was not far off his 37th birthday – beyond the traditional fast-bowling expiry date – and his body had been pushed through the rigours of 119 Tests and more than 200 ODIs.
There were rumblings he was finished. That the low-on-pace, high-on-accuracy recipe that had served him so well was no longer enough. He had missed Australia's Test tours of South Africa and Bangladesh and an 11-month gap between Tests was considered poor preparation for the Ashes.
Perhaps the critics should have listened to McGrath himself, who had repeatedly insisted his body was feeling as good as ever.
By stumps on day two, with the wickets of openers Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook in his pocket, he remained upbeat – or defiant.
Image Id: 8EC5CE405C09428CA268329BC8B2A1E7"To get a couple of wickets early on does wonders for the confidence," he said that evening.
"I'm almost exactly where I can be and am really looking forward to day three. I reckon I can really nail it."
After his heroics in 2005 and his exploits in the intervening period, Kevin Pietersen had emerged as England's most dangerous batsman. The aggressive right-hander scratched his way to 16 on the third morning before he shouldered arms to a ball that nipped back off the seam and trapped him lbw.
At 4-78, the visiting side was staring at a monster first-innings deficit, and McGrath seized the advantage, taking another three wickets to finish with 6-50 as England were skittled for 157.
Image Id: CF9AC6C6BD7A497ABD28769DE092D5BBOn the same surface that Australia’s batsmen would manage more than 800 runs across two innings for the loss of just 10 wickets, and England would go on to post a respectable 370 in their second innings, McGrath’s contribution was pivotal.
As he walked off the field to a strong applause from the Brisbane crowd, he briefly began hobbling and clutching his lower back, mocking media suggestions as emphatically as he had just done with the ball.
"The boys were into me today for the number of times 'old' appeared in the headlines," McGrath said later. "I was having a bit of fun, I wasn't having a go at anyone.
"To get that five-for, I couldn't have hoped for a better Test comeback."
18) Anil Kumble, 8-141 & 4-138
India v Australia, Sydney, 2004
Image Id: 3D4057254D1C4E44B8AE5651533BE9BBBy Louis Cameron
Having spent some parts of his career being overshadowed by higher-profile spin contemporaries, Anil Kumble would have hardly been surprised that his finest performance outside Asia was a mere footnote to the final bow of Steve Waugh's farewell tour.
It may well occupy a greater place in cricket's collective memory had it been Shane Warne or Muttiah Muralidaran who took a dozen wickets in a deciding match of a major Test series.
Especially considering Kumble had been overlooked for Harbhajan Singh for a spot in India's XI for the opening Test of the campaign.
In hindsight, his feat of persistence against an Australian team, its formidable early 2000s aura still intact despite the absence of Warne (doping ban) and Glenn McGrath (injured), was a warning that the tide was turning for Indian bowlers abroad.
It had been nearly two decades since India had won a Test series outside Asia and although Kumble's efforts in the final match of the 03-04 series in Australia was not enough to break the drought, the act of retaining the Border Gavaskar Trophy marked a significant step forward for the team he would eventually captain.
The build-up to the Sydney Test, and indeed the entire series, had been dominated by Waugh's victory lap as Australia collectively fawned over one of its most revered sporting leaders.
There were high hopes from the 181,063 fans who came to farewell him of a fairytale ending resembling his final-ball-of-the-day Ashes century a year earlier, or even just another Test series win.
But Kumble ensured neither came to pass.
Riding high after Sachin Tendulkar (241) and VVS Laxman (178) torched a tired Australian attack still regaining its breath after a taxing series-levelling win at the MCG, Kumble hardly faltered in a marathon 46.5 over spell to see the hosts bowled out for 474 in reply.
Image Id: 9C0137F4EF5D49B5AE12A9B5D2453151While most failed to match his military discipline rather than being done over by Warne-esque wonder-balls, the flatter delivery to trap Ricky Ponting (fresh off a match-winning double century in Melbourne) suitably impressed the King of Spin, who was confined to commentary duties for Channel Nine.
Only two others (Harbhajan and Darren Gough) dismissed Ponting more times in Tests than Kumble. The antagonism between Ponting and Harbhajan is remembered more vividly but it could be argued the Ponting-Kumble rivalry ran just as deep given how the pair locked horns as their sides' respective leaders during the ensuing scandal-ridden tour in 07-08.
In taking the Aussies' first four and last four wickets at the SCG, Kumble had seemingly put his side in a position where they were the only team that could win the Test.
One final flourish from Waugh in his final innings, and Simon Katich backing up his first-innings ton with an unbeaten 77, put paid to that as Kumble added another four scalps, bowling almost unchanged on the final day.
Image Id: B7745CD9A7D1414687A2DCE84CE33556In another tireless effort, he sent down 42 of India's 94 overs and became the last man to dismiss Waugh in a Test when the Aussie skipper went for glory on 80, attempting a trademark slog sweep into the packed stands but finding Tendulkar in the outfield.
It’s fitting that among bowlers from the subcontinent in Australia, only Kumble's idol BS Chandrasekhar has bettered his figures of 12-279, while no spinner has taken more wickets in a Border-Gavaskar series than Kumble's 24 in '03-04, a remarkable achievement given he missed the opening Test.
All things considered, Waugh's memorable quip on his final Test exit - "It shows that after 168 Tests you can still lose the plot under pressure," - might have said as much about Kumble as it did of Waugh.
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