Blistering Johnson recalls past blitzkrieg eras
IF BODYLINE villain Harold Larwood were any scarier than the new-model Mitchell Johnson, he must have been some bowler.
As far as rampant, raw, blood-onthe-floor, fast-bowling spells to middle and lower-order batsmen go, Johnson’s 7-40 against England is as good as it gets.
Even sitting in the press box you felt as if you were going to get blown off your chair. Coach Darren Lehmann had vowed to take Australia back to its glory years and suddenly, there we were.
You don’t see it often . . . a highly rated cricket team in a state of uncontrollable panic against a single fast bowler on a flat wicket.
Larwood, Frank Tyson and John Snow stitched up Australia with spells like this and Australia got their own back with Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in the 1970s and Jack Gregory and Ted McDonald in the 1920s.
But that’s five blitzkrieg eras in 100 years. Cricket fans can go for decades without seeing the mayhem that unfolded in Adelaide yesterday.
Some will say that Johnson has had this in him from the time he was first spotted a dozen years ago. Queensland officials sent a man with a speed gun around the state and he told them that Queensland’s fastest bowler was not one of their internationals but an unknown teen from Townsville.
But his journey has been a long one, full of self-doubt, a challenging upbringing and injuries.
Former Wisden editor Scyld Berry said Johnson’s spell would have its own place in history.
‘‘It took fast bowling back to the glory days of the 1980s when the West Indies were at their peak,’’ Berry said.
It is a rare experience to see batsmen almost shaking in their boots, playing silly nerve-wracked shots, taking reckless runs to get off strike, poking at balls that should be left alone, jumping across their stumps to be bowled behind their legs.
At the end of the English innings, when Johnson had taken 7-40, the returns of all other bowlers for the match were 13-680, confirming that one man had soared spectacularly above his team-mates and rivals.