Mitchell Johnson and Doug Bollinger are starting to form a particularly useful bowling combination
Brydon Coverdale at the MCG28-Dec-2009While families all around Australia continue to enjoy their Christmas leftovers, the country’s cricket team is filling up on left-arm overs. For most of the past two decades, Australia have relied heavily on right-arm fast men but Doug Bollinger and Mitchell Johnson, who combined for six wickets in the first innings at the MCG, are starting to form a particularly useful left-arm combination.Johnson is the leading Test wicket-taker in 2009 and, as Australia’s spearhead, he continues to tally up victims with speed and unpredictability. Bollinger is a new man in the Australian team but has rapidly bowled himself into a position from which the selectors will find it hard to drop him.Bollinger’s 13 wickets in two Tests against West Indies, and then 3 for 50 at the MCG, means he might not be the one to make way once Ben Hilfenhaus recovers from his knee problem. Today, he was again the catalyst for a run of wickets after the nightwatchman Mohammad Aamer, a promising left-armer himself, frustrated the Australians for more than two hours.When the new ball arrived, a well-rested, fired-up Bollinger found the outside edge from Aamer. Such was the pace and bounce that Marcus North at first slip did well to snare the chance in front of his face, which was a surprising result given the general deadness of the pitch had caused several edges to fall short of the cordon.All of a sudden Pakistan lost 4 for 17 including two more for Bollinger, as his angle across the right-handers drew edges that were taken behind the wicket. Having earlier had the dangerous Umar Akmal caught at slip, Johnson then finished the task by coming round the wicket and rattling the off stump of the No. 11 Saeed Ajmal.Before Johnson and Bollinger came together for the first time in Sydney last summer, Australia had not played two left-arm fast men in a Test for more than 20 years, since Bruce Reid and Chris Matthews joined forces in 1986-87. Other countries haven’t had the same predilection for right-armers and various combinations of Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra have worked well together for India, while Sri Lanka have regularly used Chaminda Vaas in concert with Nuwan Zoysa and Thilan Thushara.Part of the attraction towards Johnson and Bollinger lies in their contrast. Both men are very quick but that’s where the similarity ends. Bollinger is all aggression, loud and brash, and sprints in like he’s racing against Usain Bolt. He has control over his swing and enjoys reverse when the ball gets older, but equally loves to dig in short ones.Johnson is quiet and sensitive, ambles in off a short run-up and generates his pace with his slingy action. He too can swing the ball but just as often the seam is scrambled, angling across right-handers and in towards left-handers. His unpredictability is one of his biggest weapons, because occasionally he’ll unexpectedly curve a delivery in to a right-hander or bang in a nasty bouncer lethal enough to injure or dismiss.He has taken 60 wickets at 28.03 this calendar year and was named the ICC’s Cricketer of the Year, and is already the third-most successful Australian left-arm fast bowler in Test history. But then, with the exception of Alan Davidson, Bill Johnston and the injury-prone Bruce Reid, the team has rarely had a quality left-armer on a permanent basis. They might now have two for the foreseeable future.
