ENGLAND’S 10 MOST FEARSOME PACE BOWLERS... AND WHY ARCHER IS MY NUMBER ONE!
1 JOFRA ARCHER
ENGLAND’S new fast-bowling sensation goes straight in at No 1 after his working-over of Steve Smith at Lord’s on Saturday. Smith is to England’s present-day bowlers what Don Bradman was in the 1930s — the batsman whose fortunes define the game. But Archer’s spell put Smith out of the Test and is threatening to change the mood of an Ashes series in a way no England fast bowler has done since Frank Tyson.
2 FRANK TYSON
The answer to Len hutton’s prayers in 1954-55, Tyson came to the fore when he put Bill edrich in hospital playing for Northants against Middlesex. Taken to Australia that winter, he began unpromisingly with one for 160 at Brisbane before being woken up by a blow to the head from Ray Lindwall at Sydney. Next day, Tyson claimed six for 85 to square the series. he then destroyed Australia with seven for 27 at Melbourne. Richie Benaud said he was the fastest he ever faced.
3 HAROLD LARWOOD
WHISTLE down a mine, they used to say, and you’ll unearth England’s next quick. So it proved with Larwood of Nuncargate, Nottinghamshire — the man asked by Douglas Jardine to blunt Bradman in 1932-33. Charging in to packed leg-side fields, Larwood took 33 wickets at 19 in a 4-1 series win, only to be made a scapegoat by MCC for the Bodyline tactic. He never played for his country again.
4 DEVON MALCOLM
Malcolm probably never said ‘You guys are history’ after being hit on the helmet by Fanie de Villiers at the oval in 1994, but no matter. Malcolm went on to take nine for 57 in one of the most famous spells in english history, although it’s possible he bowled even faster at the same venue against Australia a year earlier. As Steve Waugh put it: ‘Australia breathed a sigh of relief whenever a steady medium-pacer was picked in front of him.’
5 STEVE HARMISON
FOR a while, around 2004, Harmison was briefly anointed the ‘white Curtly Ambrose’; one journalist christened him ‘Grievous Bodily Harmison’. Tall, gangly and not always in control, Harmison’s menace resided partly in his unpredictability, but on his day he was lethal — never more so than he took seven for 12 to skittle West Indies for 47 at Sabina Park in March 2004.
6 FRED TRUEMAN
truEMAN was once described as ‘t’finest bloody fast bowler that ever drew breath’ and it didn’t bother him too much that the description was his own. John Arlott opted for a ‘sharply pointed and astutely directed weapon’ which seemed fair enough. He helped reduce india to nought for four on his test debut at Headingley in 1952 and finished a remarkable career with 307 wickets at 21 — not to mention the abiding respect of anyone who ever faced him.
7 MARK WOOD
INJURY-PRONE he may be, but until Archer burst on to the scene, no England fast bowler could make opponents hop around quite like Wood. In St Lucia in February, he touched 95mph while taking five wickets in eight overs. West Indies batsmen didn’t so much play shots as twitch and flinch. His pace during the recent World Cup was an unsung aspect of England’s success.
8 ANDREW FLINTOFF
sEVErAl of ricky Ponting’s great Australia test team still swear that the best fast bowling they faced came from Flintoff during the 2005 Ashes. And few overs can have been looked up online so often as the one in which he dismissed Justin langer and Ponting that summer at Edgbaston. Who knows how many more test wickets than 226 Flintoff might have claimed had his career not been cut short by knee trouble in 2009.
9 CHARLES KORTRIGHT
WHEN Kortright died in 1952, his obituary in Wisden said he was ‘probably the fastest bowler in the history of the game’. Kortright never played for England, instead appearing in 170 first-class matches for his native Essex. Famously reluctant to leave the crease, WG Grace once lost two stumps to a ball from Kortright, who wondered: ‘Leaving us already, Doctor? There’s one stump still standing.’
10 SIMON JONES
liKE larwood, Jones hit his peak then never played another test — victim of a body that eventually buckled under the strain of a punishingly demanding action. in the 2005 Ashes, Jones was possibly the fastest fourth seamer in the history of cricket, taking six for 53 at Old trafford, then five for 44 at trent Bridge — scene of the last of his 18 tests. search Youtube for footage of his delivery to Michael Clarke, bowled playing no stroke to another Jones thunderbolt.