Legends Month: The best of Glenn McGrath

It's the northern summer of 2013 and Ryan Harris, Australia's premier fast bowler, is early for a daily physio appointment that helped to keep his fragile frame together.

While Harris waits his turn as Test rookie Steve Smith is having his troublesome back treated, the Queenslander is hypnotised by what's unfolding on the television.

Sitting in Australia's team room in their hotel on the 2013 Ashes tour, Harris is awestruck watching a replay of Test legend Glenn McGrath ripping the heart of England's top order at Lord’s eight years earlier.

Today, thirteen years after the chaotic final session on day one of the first Test of the 2005 Ashes, the images of a 35-year-old McGrath sporting blond tips in his hair and custom gold shoes disembowelling Australia’s oldest and fiercest rival are just as hair-raising, spine-tingling and jaw-dropping as they were that Thursday evening at St John’s Wood.

Two-thirds through a chaotic first day of a memorable series, it was England who found themselves in an imperious position at 0-10 having bowled Australia out for 190 after losing the toss and being asked to bowl first.

But in the space of 31 balls after the tea interval, Australia’s most prolific fast bowler, with 499 Test dismissals already under his belt, changed the complexion of the day and the match.

Trotting in from the Pavilion End down the unique, pronounced slope of the Lord’s playing surface, McGrath sized up Marcus Trescothick, the left-handed England opener who the metronomic Australian had declared before arriving in the mother land would be his 500th Test victim.

It took only one ball after tea for the right-armer to collect his milestone scalp as a wobbly-seam delivery went down the slope, took Trescothick’s leading edge and was safely pouched by Justin Langer at third slip.

While McGrath was saluting the packed Lord's crowd with the ball, 12th man Michael Kasprowicz sprinted out to the middle with towels, water bottles and a fresh pair of bowling shoes emblazoned with 'Pony 500' on the side for the wicket-taker.

McGrath would later reveal the plan was to sneak off and change boots once he reached the landmark, but Kasprowicz had other ideas for the brilliant speedster who allowed himself, just this once, to be a 'show pony'.

But the Pony 500s became redundant four balls later when Trescothick’s opening partner Andrew Strauss edged McGrath to Shane Warne at first slip to be Test wicket No.501.

In fact, replays show Kasprowicz rushing past the departing Strauss with a new set of spikes in hand as the late Tony Greig bellowed in commentary: "McGrath is amongst them!".

With the left-handers out of the way, McGrath could target the stumps of England's right-handed middle-order and it wouldn’t take the master seamer long to find the woodwork.

England captain Michael Vaughan was the next to go, unable to keep out a ball from the Australian that jagged down the slope, stayed low and uprooted his off-stump.

A score of 3-13 turned into 4-19 as No.4 Ian Bell chopped the veteran onto his leg bail to send the tourists into a frenzy for the fourth time in the session.

Richie Benaud, the doyen of cricket commentators and analysts who had closely observed McGrath's Test career from its inception, proclaimed in commentary that he’d never seen him bowl any better.

But the best was yet to come.

In retirement, McGrath has said that he never bowled a single ball from the Nursery End at Lord’s, preferring the Pavilion End so he could take advantage of the slope that angles into the stumps of right-handed batsmen. And if the wickets of Vaughan and Bell weren’t evidence enough that it was a sound strategy, the ball that dismissed Andrew Flintoff closed the case.

McGrath’s masterpiece concluded with a ball that pitched short of a length, jagged down the slope with the seam bolt upright and zeroing in on the vulnerable wickets. Flintoff had no chance of stopping it as his off stump was blasted out of the ground with a metallic clang and sent hurtling behind him.

England were 5-21, McGrath had 5-2 in 31 balls and the match had been flipped on its head.

Eight years later, Harris would marvel at how the ball to dismissal Flintoff seemingly swung with a straight seam after landing and into the allrounder's stumps.

Later that year, Harris would himself replicate the wizardry of that delivery with a ball that defied physics; swinging in, straightening and then swinging away to castle England captain Alastair Cook with the first ball of the second innings at the WACA Ground.

The stirring spell from McGrath meant Harris would be late for his appointment on that day in 2013. But nobody noticed; the entire room had stopped to watch the Narromine Express at his best.