Bowler Mitchell bows out on a high for Australia

Moments after leaving the field for the final time, Mitchell Johnson looked back on his international career and declared: “I feel like I’ve done enough”.

The 34-year-old fast bowler announced his retirement on day five of the drawn second Test against New Zealand in Perth and bowed out with two wickets, taking his tally to 313 – fourth on Australia’s all-time list behind Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Dennis Lillee.

He also lies third among leftarm seamers to have played the game, trailing only Wasim Akram and Chaminda Vaas. His last two victims, Tom Latham and Martin Guptill, succumbed to the kind of short, rising deliveries that became Johnson’s primary weapon but he admitted at close of play that he had started to lose the predatory edge that made him such a fierce competitor.

It was that which persuaded him to bring the curtain down after 73 Tests, 153 one-day internationals and 30 twenty20s for his country.

“I feel like I’ve done enough out there,” he said after being chaired from the pitch in Perth by his team-mates. “I gave it my all. That’s all I’ve ever done in my career . . . I’m quite proud of it.”

Australia coach Darren Lehmann penneda tribute on the cricket.com.au website revealing a recent nickname Johnson’s efforts had earned him.

“Today we said farewell to a champion, a bloke that we’ve come to call ‘Caviar’ after the nation’s most famous and most successful thoroughbred,” wrote Lehmann. “Mitchell Johnson changed the game for Australia, and probably the way the game is played elsewhere with his performances over the past few years.

“He will be sorely missed in our dressing-room.”