Top 20 in 2020: The best Test bowling, No.4

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

4) Shane Warne, 4-49

Australia v England, Adelaide, 2006

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Adelaide, December 5, 2006. Mike Hussey actually had to suppress a laugh. He'd only been in the team 12 months, and the prospect of mocking Ricky Ponting or Shane Warne wasn't one that sat comfortably with him.

But he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Not only were Ponting and Warne convinced they could win a Test match that was quite obviously petering out to a draw, but they were actually discussing which of the two paths available was best to get them there.

"Before the warm-up, (then Australia coach) John Buchanan and Ricky Ponting pulled the whole team together for a meeting in the dressing rooms, and that didn't happen very often," Hussey told cricket.com.au.

"They spoke very directly with the team. They said, 'Right, we can win this game but everyone in the room has to believe that we can win'.

"And I almost chuckled, because I'm thinking, 'Yeah, right mate'.

"(Ponting is) saying, 'We have to figure out what's the best way to go about winning this game – we've got two options.

"We can go for all-out attack, set attacking fields, go for wickets every single ball, try and knock them over as quickly as we can and then chase down whatever runs we have to get.

"Or we can try and strangle them, set defensive fields a little bit, but just don't give them any runs whatsoever. Keep it tight, just be patient and maybe sneak one wicket, get a lucky wicket, maybe get a run-out and just let the pressure build up on England that way'.

"You could see it in Ricky's eyes and in John Buchanan's eyes, and then Warnie started to get involved as well, and the belief started to grow."

Soon enough, Hussey was convinced. If two of the greatest players to wear the Baggy Green believed it, so did he.

***

By the second Test in Adelaide, Australia led the series one-nil. But Ponting, Warne and co had been burned badly in the previous year's Ashes. They had led one-nil after Lord's, too. That England came back to prevail 2-1 was a blight on their records they could barely accept. The only consolation was the idea of sweet revenge. It kept them going through their next 12 Test matches (of which they won 11 and drew one), all the way to the return bout.

"I've never been part of a team so focused and so determined to turn things around," Hussey recalls.

"From the very first team meeting, the input from all the players, the coaches, the way we trained, the way Ricky spoke to the team.

"I think they appreciated (2005) was a great series but that really cut quite a few of them very deep. It really hurt their pride a lot and they were desperate to turn that around."

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Victory in Brisbane had been achieved in a relative canter, but Pietersen and Paul Collingwood had batted for days in Adelaide as England fought to find a way back into the series. After four days, they were 1-59 in their second innings, after declaring at 6-551 in their first, and Australia had made 513 in response.

A flat Adelaide wicket had staged a run-fest. And a draw was all but inevitable.

But then, somehow, it wasn't.

***

"We get back to the hotel on day four in the evening and I'm convinced it's going to be a drawn Test match – no chance of a result," Hussey says.

"All the press were talking about a draw, the public were talking about a 'boring old draw at the Adelaide Oval tomorrow'."

Perhaps England bought into the consensus and figured all they had to do was turn up to finish the Test on level terms. Or perhaps Australia's desire for Ashes redemption was so strong that they found it within themselves to pull off the extraordinary.

Or perhaps it was more to do with the ace in their pack. Warne had a way of bending matches to his will, and the hosts' remarkable reversal in fortunes on that fifth morning had his fingerprints all over it.

Australia opted for Plan B: attempt to suffocate England, sneak a wicket or two, and slowly apply the pressure until something cracked.

It worked. The runs dried up. Just 10 runs were accumulated in 11 overs before Andrew Strauss advanced down the pitch and looked to whip the ball into the leg side from the bowling of Warne. Hussey took the close-in catch, appeals rang out, and Strauss was on his way.

Replays confirmed bat and ball had never come in contact, but when a panicked Ian Bell was run-out two overs later, the details mattered little. England were three down and there was a glimmer of hope for Australia.

"You could feel the pressure building," Hussey says. "We got another wicket, then another one and suddenly the crowd started to get involved as well and we started to get more belief."

That hope, however, was quelled somewhat by the presence in the middle of Collingwood and Pietersen, who had made 206 and 158 respectively in the first innings.

Warne again. He had been involved in the first two wickets of the day and this time he ratcheted things up a notch. Pietersen had claimed in typically brazen fashion that Warne would never bowl him around his legs, and the Australian took the statement as a challenge. In he came, that powerful, purposeful stride and that ripping action. The ball fizzed and drifted and spun. Pietersen followed it with his eyes and then his bat but, having yet to settle at the crease, his attempted sweep was unconvincing. A clattering of stumps and he was on his way.

"Warne bowled non-stop for two sessions from the one end and I think I can remember him bowling one bad ball," Hussey says. "He was just phenomenal."

England had lost three wickets for four runs and the rot had set in. They scrambled another 56 as their last six wickets tumbled, Collingwood cutting a bemused figure from the non-striker's end as he oversaw the unfolding of the disaster, unbeaten on 22.

More than the numbers, Warne's tangible control over proceedings had shaped the morning's events.

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"I reckon Shane took leg-spin bowling to another level this day," Ponting wrote in his autobiography, At the close of play. "He finished with 4-49 from 32 overs, but such was the pressure he exerted he got a few wickets at the other end too.

"The manner in which he was able to vary his pace and flight, turn the ball appreciably but not give anything away, relentlessly getting into the batsmen's heads, was simply phenomenal.

"For us, it was such a thrill being out there, seeing the same players who'd beaten us in England now so stressed, watching them react so negatively to what the greatest bowler of my experience was doing to them."

It left Australia needing 168 to win in the final 36 overs of the day, a target they reached with 19 balls to spare thanks largely to Ponting and Hussey.

"It still to this day is probably the best feeling I've ever had on a cricket field," Hussey said. "And listening to guys like Ricky and Shane Warne say that was the best Test match they've ever been involved in, (it) was pretty amazing to be a part of."

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