by sussexpob » Thu Nov 23, 2017 5:28 pm
With the Ashes now in full swing, I am interested to find out peoples views on what they see as the best Ashes performances from players in their lifetime.
For me, most of my growing up in the game occurred during a period of extended Aussie domination, lead by several legends of the game who always had the upper hand against England. The likes of Waugh, Warne and McGrath regularly pounded England line ups to dust, and regularly put in notable performance. Yet, there is a sense that England were rip for the taking, stuck in a long period of institutional crisis, and as such feel like a little lame duck. Warne's 2005 performance is the most noteworthy, conjuring up his own rearguard alone in a series where other Aussie bowlers were dropping and struggling to make inroads. Arguably the best bowler of all time at the top of his game, a mix of incredible accuracy and wizard like trickery. It was awesome to watch, and who can forget the orgasmic shrill of Michael Slater unable to contain his shock and excitement as Warne produced devil like turn at near right angles into Andrew Strauss' stumps.
Yet, it was not to be. Warne's back up in that series failed to turn up. McGrath was injured, and England seemed happy to let Warne do his thing and feast on the inadequacies of the seam bowling on offer from Australia's ageing and out of kilter pace attack. The fact Australia lost takes the sheen off Warne's effort, it tried its best but had no defining effect on the result of the series, despite its quality. No one else of that Aussie era can really stand out. There was too much quality to pick one. If you bowled out 3 batters cheaply, the others made runs together. Or they all made runs. And then there was the bowlers, who all generally did very well all the time. McGrath blew you away, Warney did. The rest mopped up wickets.
For England, the away series victory in Australia hosts a few standouts. Yet, I dont want to pick from these. Australia were in transition, the end of a golden generation, and in bad shape. England went in as rightful favourites, and punished a lot of poor bowling and fragile Australian confidence. 2005 has some standout performances, an honourable mention to Andrew Flintoff who became a talisman that rallied England and gave them confidence to end the domination of Australia. Yet, its not good enough to warrant best ever style billing.
The requirement for a pure standout, lone wolf style assault comes down to only one player for me. A player who quite literally won an Ashes series almost on his own, if such a statement is possible in cricket. And that man is Mitchell Johnson, in the 2013-14 series in Australia.
First the stats. 37 wickets at 13. Damn impressive. But the stats almost ignore the deeper fact that the manner in which Johnson operated not only produced isolated success in those batsman he dismissed cheaply, the effect of his performances completely routed and destroyed the belief of the England setup. He landed like a destructive earthquake that seismically shook the foundations of the England dressing room. Batsman were scared for their safety, robbed of any fight. The rest of the Aussies then steamrolled the England team riding on his coat tails. Batsman padding up must have felt like lambs to the slaughter, tortured by being forced to watch as they waited their turn gawping as their colleagues hoped around avoiding lightening bolts passing by their heads.
Mitchell Johnson was a hard guy to love. In the minds of English fans going into that Brisbane test, he was a bit of a caricature failure. He'd come to England in 2009 having rose to prominence with some viciously wicked bowling vs South Africa, and he didnt justify the hype. He didnt bowl awesomely, but everyone had been promised the next big thing. Instead they got really one innings of destruction wrapped around some very erratic performances. When England came to Australia next up, Johnson had become a target for England's fans.
He was a bit of an easy target too. He visibly was rattled by the songs and the sledging. He cut a frustrated, almost defeated figure, wandering the boundary scrapping his knuckles on the floor. He went for nearly 40 per wicket, and went for runs quickly. And as he did, he got more and more stick. He came out to bat while English close fielders were singing the barmy army songs in his ear. They laughed at him. They even text the fan groups to keep up the stick and insult him near the boundary. He was weak minded. Even when he performed at Perth, it was dismissed as a performance that was the mark of a man who could only perform in the most favourable conditions.
Johnson admits he struggled mentally. The two years leading up to the 2013-14, he hardly played a test. He had been consigned to the scrapheap largely, a skillful but damaged bowler who had lost confidence. He visited a psychologist, and was told to sing a Disney cartoon song in his head to block out the constant "he bowls to the left, he bowls to the right" that he says the Barmy Army implanted in his head when he played. It was that song that rung out after England had dismissed Australia for under 300 and had taken the upper hand in that first test in Brisbane. England were a serious team, seen as superior. Could this be another home drubbing?
The foundation for the what was to come may have been a bit of a fluke. Johnson had played in the 2013 ODI series in England, and had noticed a couple of batsman had struggled with his shorter ball on occasions. The talk before the game was of a Brisbane pitch that would resemble Perth. Quick and bouncy, possibly the fastest Gabba wicket ever. A Johnson lacking a bit of self belief has seemed to indicate he would just bowl fast, see how that went for him. See if these English really did struggle with the short ball.
The Gabbatoir lived up to its name. England were crushed, fittingly ended by a lightening bolt short ball that Johnson bowled and caught. The paper stats might not do it justice. 4 for 61 in the first innings hides the hostility and undeniable inability and desire the England team had in facing him. The ball went short, fast. England were visibly shaken. The Barmy Army, who had spend the first few overs of Johnsons spell trying to get into his ear, were silenced. Despite turning up looking like a member of the Village People who never got the job, and his recent history, there was nothing to laugh it. This was serious test match bowling, and Australia reacted around it, turning the middle of the Gabba into a pressure cooker atmosphere. It was a car crash moment for England, too compelling to turn away from.
That set the tone of the series. Johnson had been so utterly destructive, he shock the whole fabric of English cricket to the core. One that arguably, the team and the whole setup have never recovered from. They certainly didnt recover in the series. They continued to line up for slaughter all series. Visibily shaken with fear as Johnson threw down hand grenade after hand grenade. Established test players retired rather then face more, burnt out and unwilling to engage. England dissolved from a world class team into a routed mess. The coach ended up quitting. The best player ended up getting dropped. It was an institutional crisis. And Johnson had lit the spark.
Incredibly, Johnson was so deadly, so masterfully brutal, he even had his biggest detractors bowing to the new king. The Barmy Army went from silenced to celebratory. They started to side with him, an unbelievable level of self respect emerged as Johnson, often seen stick up his middle finger and wearing a beaten look previously, now proudly stood at the boundary counting the wickets on his hand and beaming into their number with a huge smile. They bestowed on him an award, he accepted with a nice video message. A weird online bromance flourished. His victory had been complete.
Deep down, we watch sport for visceral reaction. While craft and guile is a beauty to behold, one cannot replace the very real sensation of watching a spectacle of gladiatorial nature, where the sense of danger is very real, and where those involved are locked into a battle that takes more than skill, but of courage and moral fibre. We dont get that much anymore, but we did that year with Johnson. It was captivating, every ball felt like an event. The batsman never felt comfortable, were always one ball away from having their head knocked off.
It would take some doing to beat that effort.
2010 French Open fantasy league guru 2010 Wimbledon fantasy league guru 2014 Masters golf fantasy guru 2015 Players Championship FL Guru 2016 Masters Golf Fantasy Guru
And a hat and bra to you too, my good sirs!