Aussies have the need for speed

Written By Unknown on Jumat, 22 November 2013 | 20.47

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AUSTRALIA without fast bowlers is like Sampson without his hair.

Fast bowling is in Australia's DNA. It has a loud and proud heritage which was enhanced at the Gabba as terrified England batsmen were humiliated.

Mitchell Johnson (4-61) was brutal, Ryan Harris (3-28) relentless and Peter Siddle (1-24) miserly.

It was a bone-rattling, helmet crashing display from Johnson, with his Movember moustache harking back to the raw aggression of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson in the `70s.

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While Australia's batting depth continues to be exposed, the abundance of fast bowlers must be celebrated, as it was in Brisbane on Friday by a baying crowd which filled the Gabba almost to capacity.

Australia has four frontline fast bowlers out with long term injuries, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Jackson Bird, yet has still managed to assemble a confronting collection of high class pacemen.

On Friday's performance it is remarkable to think that Johnson was not considered among the best five fast bowlers in the country when he was ignored for the Ashes tour.

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Such has been his resurrection, with ball and bat, that he now looks set to be a permanent fixture this summer, raising the delicious prospect of more fireworks on the fast and bouncy Perth wicket for the third Test in a few weeks. The stars align for Johnson in Perth.

There is nothing more exciting than a fast bowler in full flight.

It raises the level of the contest to a more brutal gladiatorial form.

Skill and bravery must be shown in equal measure if a batsman is to survive and thrive. England managed neither.

And this is an era when batsmen have never had it so good.

Kevin Pietersen had no answer to Ryan Harris. Source: News Corp Australia

It highlights the skill and courage of those from eras past who had nothing but a layer of cloth between them and the ball on their head and most of their body.

What a joy to watch a Test match on a fast and bouncy wicket which brings the best out of the finest combatants.

The Gabba is not payback for the dry and doctored wickets England ordered around their country a few months ago to blunt Australia's pacemen and give their star spinner Graeme Swann an armchair ride to becoming the leading wicket-taker in the series.

It is simply the way the Gabba rolls out most of the time.

Mitchell Johnson bowls to Stuart Broad of England during day two of the First Ashes Test. Source: Getty Images

Everyone has the chance to prosper, as sometimes unloved spinner Nathan Lyon proved when he chimed in with the wickets of Bell and Prior to be on a hat trick.

The roaring of the crowd when Johnson was in full flight revived the glory days of Australian fast bowling.

I will never forget sitting in the Great Southern Stand of the MCG on Boxing Day 1975 with 85,000 people chanting Thommo and then Lillee as they demolished the West Indies.

Or the chants of Lillee that continued to rise from the same ground by delirious fans long after he had bowled Viv Richards on the last ball of Boxing Day 1981 to leave the West Indies 4-10 at stumps.

All those at the Gabba on Friday will talk about Johnson for years.


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