As cricket evolved over the past four decades, better bats with thicker blades were designed and shorter boundaries were enforced, the bat slowly began to dominate the ball and give batsmen an edge.
However, one pitch, the WACA, for a long period of time was often a graveyard for many a batting line-up with its pace and bounce.
The announcement that plenty of major international cricket matches will be played at the new Perth Stadium instead of the WACA was coupled with the recent demise of the pace and bounce in the WACA pitch. Have we seen the last of inspired fast bowling performances that are littered throughout the history of Tests at the iconic ground?
Generations of fast bowlers from all over the world used to crave the opportunity to bowl at the WACA. The world’s best batsman also knew that the lightning fast pitch with its steepling bounce would ask the most serious questions of their nerve and technique.
As Australia prepares to take on South Africa in what may be the last Test match at the venue against a ‘major’ cricketing nation, it is time to reflect on five of the most inspired fast bowling performances at this extraordinary ground.
5. Merv Hughes 8/87 v the West Indies, 1988
Taking 8/87 in an innings against the all-conquering West Indies with a batting line-up that featured Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Richie Richardson, Carl Hooper and Viv Richards is no ordinary performance. On the back of their own lethal fast bowling attack, the West Indian batting line-up had demoralised and intimidated opposition bowling attacks for a large part of the 1980s.
However, Hughes playing something of a lone hand in this match and bowled some inspired spells to dismiss all top six batsmen in the West Indian second innings. Not known for blinding pace, although wicketkeeper Ian Healy is on record as saying that, on his day, Hughes hit his gloves as hard as any bowler he kept to, Hughes bowled with sheer determination on this occasion to take the fight up to the might of the West Indies.
Hughes would finish with eight wickets for the innings, 13 for the match and a hat-trick across both innings to give Australia some hope of chasing down a fourth innings total and winning the match.
4. Glenn McGrath 8/24 v Pakistan, 2004
Glenn McGrath was an exceptional fast bowler and while he may not have had the sheer pace afforded his contemporaries, his impeccable line and length is perhaps unchallenged in history. McGrath destroyed the Pakistani batting line-up on this occasion as his nagging line and length, coupled with the pace and bounce of the WACA pitch, made life extremely uncomfortable for the batsmen.
The batting line-up was all at sea, fishing at everything as McGrath captured 8/24 to have Pakistan all out for 72. The pitch afforded McGrath that extra yard of pace and made scoring against him virtually impossible. Pakistan’s batsmen looked like grade cricketers completely out of their depth as McGrath extracted everything the pitch had to offer a fast bowler and like a surgeon clinically cut through the top order.
3. Michael Holding 6/21 v Australia, 1984
Put simply, Michael Holding, or ‘Whispering Death’ as he was known, was born to bowl with the pace and bounce the WACA pitch provided fast bowlers. The Australian batting line-up was decimated as Holding, bowling with intimidating pace and confronting bounce, produced a spell for the ages, taking 6/20 from 8.2 overs.
Holding, with the coaching manual bowling technique, had the Australian batsmen hopping about like cats on a hot tin roof. His line was impeccable and the length often unplayable as Australia were eventually skittled for 76 in 31.2 overs. Holding’s performance resulted in the West Indies winning the match easily in day three.
2. Dennis Lillee 8/29 v Rest of the World, 1972
Before the back injuries that forced Lillee to refine his technique and lose a yard of pace, he was a tearaway young fast bowler as intimidating as any who had come before him or would after him. The sheer beauty and brutality of Lillee’s bowling was on display during this innings as Sunil Gavaskar, Rohan Kanhai, Zaheer Abbas, Clive Lloyd, Garry Sobers and Tony Greig were all sent packing back and the Rest of the World were humbled for an embarrassing 59 all out.
Lillee charged in and bowled short and fast to have the Rest of the World batsmen on the back foot and nibbling at the occasional leg cutters and off cutters thrown in between. Lillee announced himself as a future star of the game during this innings and had the world’s best batsman wondering what lay in store for them over the next decade.
The WACA was Lillee’s home pitch and it showed on this day as he harnessed its pace and bounce to humble the best batsman the rest of the world had to offer.
1. Curtly Ambrose 7/25 v Australia, 1993
Australia game into this series-deciding Test match against the West Indies locked at 1-1, and possibly thinking that after a decade of brutal punishment and humiliating defeats they were a chance of ending the run of losses.
However, anyone who saw Allan Border’s frustration in the Adelaide dressing room after losing a close match that proceeded the WACA Test may have been forgiven for thinking that Border knew what lay in wait at Perth.
Curtly Ambrose was at the peak of his powers as a fast bowler and produced one of the most destructive spells ever seen at the WACA ground. From an astonishing 32 deliveries, Ambrose took seven wickets for one solitary run and reduced Australia from 85 for 2 to all out for 119.
Like Holding before him, Ambrose was genetically engineered to extract every advantage the legendary WACA pitch afforded fast bowlers. Deliveries constantly whistled past the throat of batsmen and the inevitable parry at a good length delivery would follow; as six of Ambrose’s victims were caught in the slips or by the wicketkeeper.
Ambrose gave countless Australian children growing up during his career nightmares as he routinely dismantled very good Australian batting line-ups. On this day, the pace and bounce of the WACA deck took his bowling performance to another level of intimidation and is something this child, who was growing up during the time, has never forgotten.
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