Comments on: The Top 5 Dodgy Aussie Bowling Attacks Since 1995

By: Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:01:48 +0000

Dasilva – watch out for Doug Bollinger. Moves the ball both ways at pace and poses extreme danger to left-handers. With any luck he’ll play in Nagpur.

By: JohnB

JohnB — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 02:31:15 +0000

Spiro – when England made 7-903 at the Oval in 1938 v Australia, McCabe after his first over (or first ball – can’t remember which) opening the bowling is supposed to have turned to the umpire and said “they’ll make a thousand”. He didn’t actually “lead” the attack that day (well, those days) – Cricinfo tells us it was a Mervyn Waite, medium pacer bowling all-rounder, with a career of 1 wicket in his 2 tests, but a steady 2 wickets per game man in first class cricket, making him a lot more destructive than McCabe who took a bit less than a wicket a game in test and first class cricket. With all due respect, that’s going to be hard to go past in the lacklustre opening attacks stakes.

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:11:38 +0000

dasilva, I reckon the Tassie pair of Geeves and Hilfenhaus would have to come into contention in the next year or so….along with Steve Magoffin from WA. As far as the spin cupboard goes, I fail to see why Casson wasn’t persevered with. ‘Ball turning into the batsman’, meh.

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:08:02 +0000

I know it was technically ’95 onwards but I think you covered that era very well!! I remember that ball that broke Lawson’s jaw – would have liked to have had the speed camera on Ambrose around that time – and Marshall and Patterson, for that matter. The funny thing is, Chris Mathews was a petty destructive bowler domestically – but went to water at Test level.

By: dasilva

dasilva — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 11:07:53 +0000

Thanks for the reply.

I guess I wrote that comment to add that we look at the current bowling attack and it looks really bare. However in the past similarly bare looking attack has gone on to win test matches for Australia. Who knows maybe we’ll unearth a gem in the next year or so when we are predicted to really struggle. Eventually one of the new bowlers will eventually come through for us. Any predictions who it will be?

By: Andrew Jones

Andrew Jones — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 10:57:08 +0000

Thanks all for the comments:
1. Wally – good point! I reckon I could have faced Mr Cricket and survived…
2. Dasilva – you are quite right – no-one except the selectors (and, to his credit, Jeff Thomson) thought McGrath would be one of the greats. Just as well Courtney Browne dropped that catch off S Waugh when he was on about 40!
3. Bollinger moves the ball both ways at pace – enough said
4. Ken – you are quite right. In the first Test of the losing 86-87 Ashes series we had Bruce Reid, Chris Matthews, Merv Hughes, Greg Matthews and Steve Waugh and lost by 7 wickets. Roar columnist Henry Lawson replaced Reid (injured, no doubt) for the second Test, which was drawn. Interestingly, Chris Matthews’ third and final Test was against the Windies in 88-99: we had Chris Matthews, Tony Dodemaide, Craig McDermott and Tim May, and they had Malcolm Marshall, Patrick Patterson, Curtley Ambrose and Courtney Walsh!! Lawson again replaced Matthews for the second Test but Ambrose (bowling second change!) promptly broke his jaw with a bouncer. Merv then signalled his arrival as a Test bowler with 8-87 off 37 in the second innings – and the Windies declared 9-down!

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:18:48 +0000

The one with an early Merv Hughes, Chris Matthews and I think Greg Mathews wasn’t too flash……that may have been against India as well, in Australia in the mid-80s. I think C. Mathews only played a couple of tests.

By: damos_x

damos_x — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 04:41:27 +0000

having seen Bollinger in action on tv a few times i reckon it’s time to give him a crack. he has an air of menace, or threat that you had better be on your game or else.

By: Wallythefly

Wallythefly — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:16:51 +0000

Andrew, don’t forget they threw the ball to Hussey!!!!!!

By: dasilva

dasilva — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:52:28 +0000

I’ll add a bowling attack that wasn’t dodgy but at the time was predicted by everyone to struggle.

The australian bowling attack to tour west indies in 1995 turn out to be a great bowling attack but at that time virtually everyone expected Australians bowling attack to struggle when they first tour West indies in 1995. In fact West Indian captain Richardson commented that this isthe worst Australian side to tour here partly due to the inexperience of the bowling attack. It was completely a surprise how well they played and they were instrumental along with Steve Waugh in winning the series in West Indies. Australia came over to WI with only one bowler as recognise as world class Shane Warne. The rest were inexperience.

Here were the bowlers and there bowling averages at the time
Glenn McGrath 38.32 9 test match
Shane Warne 23.81 34 test match
Paul Reiffel 33.51 13 test match
Brendon Julian 38.20 3 test matches

Glenn Mcgrath ended up becoming an all time great. Paul Reiffel turn out to be a pretty handy bowler. At the time though looking at those average people predict that they were up for a hammering in WI with only Shane Warne offering hope for australia.

By: Spiro Zavos

Spiro Zavos — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 01:29:52 +0000

This is a fascinating exercise by Andrew. It is a reminder that even a great side (historically) sometimes is represented by pretty ordinary performaners. It reminded me too that in the 1930s the Australian attack was sometimes lead by part-time bowlers like Stan McCabe and so on.
I’d love to know from the cricket experts who grace the pages of The Roar what they consider to be Australia’s worst opening attack.