Since Mark Taylor, Steve Waugh and consummate tourist Brendon Julian took Australia to the top of world cricket in 1995, Australia has generally had the best bowling attack in the world. Typically this meant Warne, McGrath and two of Gillespie, Kasprowicz and Lee, who between them have 1800 Test wickets and counting.
Last week’s Second Test line-up was not in the same class, and prompted me to recall The Top 5 Dodgy Aussie Bowling Attacks Since 1995.
1. Lee, Johnson, Clarke, Watson, White and Siddle, 2nd Test v India, Mohali, 2008 (c)
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I can claim foresight in this case: I started this article as soon as Stuart Clark withdrew. As expected, an off-key Lee, a debutant in Siddle, plus part-timers in Clarke, Watson and White did not give an Indian top order with 43,000 Test runs too much to worry about. Only Johnson had the muscle to trouble them, and even then he has stopped swinging the ball. I am most troubled by our selection policy: since when are bowlers (Watson and White) picked for their batting? Meanwhile Doug Bollinger mixes the drinks, having taken 45 wickets last season in 7 first-class games at the best strike rate in the history of the Sheffield Shield.
2. Kasprowicz, Wilson, Blewett, Warne, M Waugh and Robertson, 2nd Test v India, Calcutta, 1998
Australia’s seam stocks dipped like the Dow when McGrath missed the tour with injury and Pistol Paul Reiffel pulled out after the First Test. This left Paul ‘Blocker’ Wilson to waste the new ball, and part-timer Greg Blewett to bowl first change. Mark Waugh bowled non-turning offspin, as did ‘The Riddler’ Gavin Robertson. Warne added class on paper but not on the field as he struggled with a malfunctioning shoulder. To make the point, Tendulkar deliberately smashed him over cow corner the last two balls before lunch on Day 2 rather than playing for the break. Warne took 0-147, India’s worst-performing batsman was Ganguly with 65, and they declared at 5-633. Result: India by an innings and 219 runs.
3. Kasprowicz, Reiffel, Warne, Cook, M Waugh, Blewett, S Waugh, Elliott, 3rd Test v New Zealand, Hobart 1997
Young and Horne was not quite in the Greenidge-Haynes league of opening combinations, but Bryan and Matt had little difficulty easing the score to 60 without loss against this McGrath-less attack. Adam Parore scored a rare ton from first drop, helping the Kiwis to 1-192 before they declared at 6-251 in this rain-affected match (Astle and Cairns the not-out batsmen). Australia could not bowl NZ in the fourth innings either, and the match ended in a draw. Simon Cook was injured soon after and did not play Test cricket again.
4. Lee, Gillespie, Bracken, MacGill, S Waugh, Katich, Martyn, 4th Test v India, Sydney 2004
To be fair to the Aussies, the SCG pitch was a featherbed for 5 days, and a draw appeared inevitable from Over 1. However an unpenetrative attack didn’t help, with Bracken yet to make the jump to world-class, MacGill having a rare unproductive outing at his home ground, and Lee in career-worst form. He lost his run-up completely, bowled 18 no-balls and was bashed at 5 an over by Laxman and Tendulkar as they batted through a whole day. To underline Lee’s difficulties, Ganguly batted on even when India reached 700. He declared at 7-705 instead, once Lee had conceded a full 200 runs. Cruel.
Incidentally, Rahul Bhattacharya’s description of the Aussie attack in Wisden is a gem:
“Gillespie was good, but increasingly more container than wicket-taker. Brett Lee went from not-bad to crap. Stuart MacGill was a reservoir of four-balls. Nathan Bracken was asked to bowl ineffectual cutters from around the wicket. Brad Williams, their best bowler at Adelaide and Melbourne, was shockingly left out for the decider.”
Perhaps the only time Brad Williams was billed as the hope of the side!
5. McGrath, Reiffel, S Waugh, McIntyre, Hogg, M Waugh, One-off Test v India, Delhi, 1996
This was best known as “Brad Hogg’s only Test” until his unlikely comeback in 2003. Beau Casson may still be cursing him. At the other end Peter McIntyre joined Peter Sleep in the list of “Top 5 Pre-Warne Leg-Spinners We Struggle To Remember”.
Honourable mention to Hughes, Campbell, Taylor, Rackemann, Border, 2nd Test v Pakistan, Adelaide, 1990. Pre-1995, this one, but such an eclectic line-up it warrants inclusion. Greg Campbell is more famous these days as Ricky Ponting’s uncle and as “the other guy” on the 1989 Ashes Tour. Carl Rackemann was back briefly after his Rebel tour ban, while Peter Taylor was failing to recapture the form of the legendary “Peter Who”.
With thanks to Nicholas Gray for his suggestions.
Andrew Jones
Guest
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.
JohnB
Guest
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.
Ken
Guest
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.
Ken
Guest
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.
dasilva
Roar Guru
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?
Andrew Jones
Guest
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!
Ken
Guest
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.
damos_x
Guest
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.
Wallythefly
Guest
Andrew, don't forget they threw the ball to Hussey!!!!!!
dasilva
Roar Guru
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.
Spiro Zavos
Expert
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.