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IT is cricket's equivalent of the sleeper hold.
Unlike a raw fast bowler Ryan Harris doesn't skewer his victims but starves them of oxygen.
He slowly tightens his grip, with the victim knowing that the fatal squeeze can come at any time.
In cricket's largest cauldron before a record Boxing Day crowd Harris took hold and refused to let go.
Overcoming his chronic knee problem to play an unprecedented eight Tests in a row, including four in this series, he bowled eight overs in the opening session and just two of those 48 deliveries were scored from.
One was edged between wicketkeeper Brad Haddin and Shane Watson at first slip for four from a late Alastair Cook attempt to leave in Harris's third over, and the other was turned by Joe Root off his hip for a single in his seventh over.
This gave Harris lunch figures of eight overs, six maidens, five runs and no wickets.
It took a surprisingly long time for the burly paceman to take his first wicket, with Root (24 from 82 balls) offering the inevitable nick to an outswinger.
Root's inability to play off the front foot has been embarrassingly exposed by the Australians on this tour. Yesterday it was just a matter time before he nibbled.
Ryan Harris celebrates with his teammates after taking the wicket of Joe Root. Source: News Limited
It gave Harris figures of 1-12 in his 11th over and notched 84 wickets in his 20th Test, with number 85 coming when he bowled the perfect ball to Ian Bell (27 in 98 balls), leaving the right-hander off the pitch to take a thin outside edge.
And Harris would have been closer to his 100th Test wicket if Kevin Pietersen (67 not out) had not been given two chances.
On seven, substitute Nathan Coulter-Nile caught a hook shot at fine leg but stumbled over the boundary rope, and on 41 George Bailey at shortish mid-wicket fumbled a sharp pull which should have been taken.
Even so, with Boxing Day figures of 2-32 from 20 overs, Harris pushed further into elite company.
In 20 completed Tests, Dennis Lillee claimed 91 wickets and Jeff Thomson 94, along with Australia's first great fast bowler Fred Spofforth well over a century ago.
To be so close to these greats is an extraordinary performance by Harris, given his patched-up body and late start in life as an international fast bowler.
Ryan Harris in action during day one of the Boxing Day Test. Source: News Limited
He is now 34, an age when many an Australian paceman had faded or disappeared completely, yet Harris is at the peak of his powers.
So dodgy is his chronic knee problem that Australia's selectors refused to make the final call on him until yesterday morning before the toss, along with a new ailment of sore feet.
And the current wisdom among those who pick the side is that Harris will be a no-go zone for the final Test in Sydney.
The inevitable swelling in Harris's knee managed to subside enough for him to make the three-day turnaround from the second Test in Adelaide to the third Test in Perth but they don't wish to take that risk again.
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