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Top 20 in 2020: The best Test bowling, 8-6

We continue our countdown of the best Test bowling performances on Australian soil since 2000

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.

Full countdown of the best Test batting in Australia since 2000

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

8) Mitchell Johnson, 6-38 & 3-44

Australia v England, Perth, 2010

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By Louis Cameron

Mitchell Johnson's love of fast cars should have warned him against returning one to the garage for repairs mid-race.

Yet when he put together the worst bowling performance of his career in the opening Test of the 2010-11 Ashes, some serious tinkering under the hood was needed.

The sheer number of crushing lows and feel-good resurgences Johnson experienced throughout a decade of international cricket are worthy of several seasons of a Netflix drama.

From the Vault: Johnson ruins England in 2010 Perth Test

The fact he was crowned the International Cricket Council's player of the year during a 2009 campaign that included a nightmare Ashes tour, during which he was traumatised by England’s cricketers, its tabloids and the Barmy Army in equal measure, marked the kind of wild fluctuations in form that characterised much of his early Test career.

After taking just 11 wickets at 43 in Australia's two series leading into the return Ashes leg on home soil in 2010-11, his 42 wicketless overs that yielded 170 runs at the Gabba and subsequent axing for the Adelaide Test would have ruined the mental state of a less resilient bowler.

And perhaps consigned him to be remembered most vividly as the 'He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right,' bloke who never quite put it all together.

But rather than brood, Johnson vowed to return bigger and better. Again.

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Some questioned why he did not opt to fix the technical issues exposed during his Brisbane battering in the Sheffield Shield. He instead allowed himself to be stripped back to parts as he spent hours with pace whisperer Troy Cooley in the nets.

When Cooley returned him to the Aussies, down 0-1 going into the third Test at the WACA Ground, the new-car smell on their fire-breathing left-arm quick was palpable.

After top-scoring with 62 in Australia's first innings, Johnson begun a spell captain Ricky Ponting would label as one of the best he had seen by dismissing Alastair Cook for 32, a fair feat at the time given the future skipper averaged 128 in the series.

With a 25-over-old ball, Johnson rediscovered his devastating late in-swing and, in the space of four balls, deceived England's trump three-four punch of Jonathon Trott and Kevin Pietersen with vicious deliveries that smashed into their pads.

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When Paul Collingwood suffered the same fate, he had forced a collapse of 5-20 in less than 10 overs.

Following Mike Hussey's second-innings ton, Johnson collected another three wickets to make it nine for the match to cap a remarkable restoration of confidence.

There would be more ups and downs in his career, not least in the two Tests that followed as England conquered him again on their way to a breakthrough series win, but he was at least back on the road.

And when rubber hit the road for England’s return three years later, Johnson found top gear once again.

7) Doug Bracewell, 3-20 & 6-40

New Zealand v Australia, Hobart, 2011

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By Adam Burnett

New Zealand have won just one of their past 25 Tests in Australia, stretching back 35 years, and they have the unlikely figure of bustling seamer Doug Bracewell largely to thank for it.

Just 21 at the time, Bracewell was playing in only his third Test. The swing bowler had been ineffective in the opener of the two-Test series just days earlier in Brisbane, contributing scores of 0 and 2 and finishing with match figures of 1-112 as the Black Caps had been hammered by nine wickets.

What happened in Hobart amounted to a good old-fashioned ambush, particularly after Australia fielded first in bowler-friendly conditions and bundled out New Zealand for 150 – exactly the same score they had posted in their second innings at the Gabba.

From the Vault: Bracewell bulldozes Aussies in dramatic Black Caps win

At that point, the outcome looked entirely likely to be the same as well.

Then came the first plot twist; in reply, Australia collapsed to be all out for 136. Introduced as a second-change option to bolster the Kiwis' pace attack, Bracewell sounded a warning with 3-20 from 10 overs, including the scalps of experienced pair Michael Clarke and Brad Haddin.

New Zealand parlayed that 14-run lead into a moderate target requirement for the Aussies of 241. It loomed as the highest total of the match but in a side boasting the talents of Clarke, Ricky Ponting and Michael Hussey, it seemed eminently achievable.

And so it seemed would be the case.

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Led by second-gamer David Warner, Australia sprinted to 1-122 in the 35th over, wiping half their required runs off the table with nine wickets still in hand.

But when Trent Boult had Usman Khawaja caught at first slip, the stage was set for Bracewell to swoop in with one of the most significant triple strikes in New Zealand's Test history.

First to go was Ponting, who punched a ball that seemed to get stuck in the pitch to cover point and was caught by Tim Southee. The wicket of the local legend fired up the visitors, and Bracewell was suddenly looking as threatening as Hadlee.

In his next over, he struck for what proved the decisive double blow.

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Captain Clarke fell first for a seven-ball duck, edging an outswinger into the safe hands of Ross Taylor at first slip. Bracewell's next delivery was fuller, and the ball swung and hit the pad of the left-handed Hussey. He was given not out, but skipper Taylor rolled the dice on a review. He won, and Hussey was on his way.

Warner and Haddin whittled the runs required down to under 50, but Tim Southee struck again, and again it was Bracewell who turned a crack into a chasm.

Despite a brilliant lone hand from Warner, it was the New Zealander who owned the moment, taking the final three wickets to fall and handing his side a thrilling, historic win.

6) Ajit Agarkar, 6-41

India v Australia, Adelaide, 2003

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By Martin Smith

When Ajit Agarkar got off the mark with a single late on the fourth day of the rain-affected 2003 Gabba Test, he responded to the crowd’s mocking cheers by raising his bat.

It’s hardly the reaction you’d expect from an experienced seam and swing bowler with more than 200 international wickets to his name. But in four previous Test matches against Australia, it had been Agarkar’s exploits with bat in hand – or rather, the lack of them – that had left a lasting impression.

On India’s previous tour four years earlier, Agarkar had registered five consecutive ducks against the Australians – four from the first ball, one from the second.

From the Vault: Agarkar takes six in famous Indian win

And when he registered another pair in the opening Test of the 2001 series in India to make it seven ducks in a row against the Australians, it was a run of outs never seen before in Test history.

But having been the subject of derision, Agarkar got his revenge and then some on a memorable day in Adelaide in late 2003 as he steered his side to their first Test win in Australia in two decades.

For more than three days, the Adelaide Oval had lived up to its reputation as a batting paradise. Double hundreds to Ricky Ponting and Rahul Dravid as well as 148 to VVS Laxman had seen more than 1000 runs scored by the time the second innings of the match came to a close shortly before lunch on the fourth day.

But the pitch that had been so unhelpful to bowlers of all types was slowly changing, and Agarkar swooped in.

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A lovely in-ducker trapped Justin Langer in front before Ponting – in the middle of one of the best batting streaks of his career – shelled a catch to gully, leaving the hosts two down before lunch and Agarkar with figures of 2-5.

The right-armer was unable to continue his momentum after the interval, leaking runs at more than four an over before he was banished to the outfield and India’s spinners came into the game.

For 25 overs, Agarkar waited as Anil Kumble, Sachin Tendulkar and even Virender Sehwag looked to take advantage of a wearing pitch that was favouring spin more and more as the day progressed.

And after the spinners gradually made further inroads to set up the tail, Agarkar returned to knock them down.

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Agarkar zeroed in on the stumps to rip through the lower order - he also removed Simon Katich thanks to a well-used short ball - taking a wicket in each of his last four overs to finish with figures of 6-41 and leaving his side 230 to win with more than a day remaining.

All this from a fast bowler who stood closer to five-and-a-half feet tall than six, with a Test bowling average of more than 45 and a reputation as a batting bunny.

Among Indian quicks, only Kapil Dev had ever produced a better performance on Australian soil and when Dravid guided the tourists to a breakthrough victory the following day, Agarkar’s spell only increased in value.

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

Top 20 in 2020: Full countdown of the best Test moments