***Official: Countdown to the 2017-2018 Ashes***

[Adders]

Anyway I wouldn't expect anything Johnson-like from the Aussie quicks this Ashes. They're good, but that was once-in-a-generation bowling.

I've said many times that is the very best fast bowling I've ever seen over the course of a series. Not sure what IL is on about, no one is standing up to that sort of ****.........and I mean no one.

 

[Burgey]

not doubting the brilliance of australia in that series but england were meek, pathetic crap too.

very much cause and effect but also a very english style capitulation. gutless.

Nice to have you on the forum, Piers.

 

[ImpatientLime]

imagine losing 5-0 and not thinking your own performance was in part to blame.

 

[Adders]

Nice to have you on the forum, Piers.

Yes!!!!

This was exactly what I was thinking reading his post.......I know what Brett Lee did to Piers was just wrong and ****ed up, but seriously anyone that says a batsmen facing Johnson bowling like that is meek, gutless and pathetic really does deserve to face it and see how ****ing tough and courageous they are. And Piers only copped about 50% of the ferocity that Mitch was dishing up.

 

[Adders]

imagine losing 5-0 and not thinking your own performance was in part to blame.

Look mate, you can call them all gutless and weak for all you like, it just narks me me when I hear armchair critics saying this stuff who would probably wet their pants if they were in the situation.........I dare say I would. Not one player in Englands batting lineup has ever faced or seen anything like it, nothing prepares you for that. Especially when it was from so left field as everyone that has previously faced Johnson had feasted on his rubbish.......plus the fact he was probably 3rd on the list to start in the Brisbane test.

When Burgey is talking about cricket seriously (and FMD it's not hard to spot when he isn't) he is one of the top 6 posters here that I know knows his **** and is always worth listening to............

Plenty of England's blokes were caught hooking or pulling in that series. Others fending the ball to short leg. You can't consistently play bowling like Johnson dished up in that series, it's not possible. Mind you, I don't know that there's many other bowlers around who could consistently produced what he did back then anyway - the angle, the consistent pace, the accuracy, that slinging action making it hard to pick up. It was a perfect storm.

 

[StephenZA]

I remember SA faced the tail end of that Johnson spectacular in SA (beginning 2014 I think) and he was pretty devastating against a not to bad batting line-up at that stage....

 

[Spark]

Yeah I remember lots of people being smug that the SA batsmen wouldn't be so weak against Johnson when Aus toured.

Then Johnson got three wickets in about five minutes and everyone shut up.

 

[Adders]

Yeah I remember lots of people being smug that the SA batsmen wouldn't be so weak against Johnson when Aus toured.

Then Johnson got three wickets in about five minutes and everyone shut up.

Expect there was more smug Englishmen when Johnson started in Brisbane...........I know I thought the Aussies were throwing a lamb to the wolves.

 

[ImpatientLime]

south africa actually competed.

england rolled over and had their bellies tickled.

this isn't just about johnson. every aspect of that tour was shambolic.

 

[Spark]

I think there was a general disbelief that Mitchell Johnson, widely regarded as one of the mentally weakest cricketers of his generation, could do that to established Test batsmen.

south africa actually competed.

england rolled over and had their bellies tickled.

this isn't just about johnson. every aspect of that tour was shambolic.

They competed at PE, and they came close to drawing at Cape Town. But even accounting for that they were a distant second best in that series, Centurion in particular was a complete thrashing.

 

[StephenZA]

The only batsman in the line-up that competed if I remember correctly, was deVillers....and England had nobody close to that class....

 

[Adders]

this isn't just about johnson. every aspect of that tour was shambolic.

Yeah on the face of it the wheels fell off with Trott and Swann but I thought our bowlers did a sterling job, but for a Bradd Haddin series of a lifetime. So there is one positive and I reckon 2006/7 was more dismal by a margin.

I know I'm sounding like a massive ass kisser but Burgey is spot on when he said "perfect storm". It hurt like hell at the time but at the end of the day when Johnson and Haddin were so unbelievably good you just have to cop it sweet and say "well played"......sometimes the opposition is just too good and there is no mileage in smashing your own side.

 

[vcs]

Australia's 4 man attack functioned quite perfectly in that series. Johnson the enforcer, Harris with swing/seam, Siddle doing the workhorse role plus the ability to get set batsmen out with the old ball, and Lyon also bowled really well when he was needed to.

 

[TheJediBrah]

Expect there was more smug Englishmen when Johnson started in Brisbane...........I know I thought the Aussies were throwing a lamb to the wolves.

I remember his first spell in brisbane was like 3 overs 0/20 or something similar, and he bowled rubbish. Which was pretty much what everyone expected. What happened next is history.

south africa actually competed.

england rolled over and had their bellies tickled.

this isn't just about johnson. every aspect of that tour was shambolic.

yes but clearly the main reason the tour was "shambolic" was a direct or indirect result of Mitchell Johnson. Indirect meaning a result of the team getting ****ed.

Jonathan Trott quitting, Swann retiring, everyone having a crack at KP in the dressing room etc. all probably wouldn't have happened that tour if there was no Johnson and England were competitive.

 

[Gob]

I wanted Chadd over Johnson for that series ftr

 

[Adders]

I wanted Chadd over Johnson for that series ftr

I'd be very very surprised if anyone can honestly put their hand up and say that they'd have picked Johnson for that Brisbane test.

 

[Top_Cat]

*hand up*

http://www.cricketweb.net/forum/cri...omestic-season-2013-14-a-143.html#post3159403

 

[Top_Cat]

(Yeah, yeah I know but I get so few right so **** you all I'm claiming this one)

 

[Burgey]

Every now and again, when I'm having a bad day I watch Johnson's 37 wickets from that series and re-read myppst before Brisbane predicting him to be Compton-Miller medallist (not that I'd have picked him but just had a 1 in 100 hunch).

And IL, I get being pissed at your own side's efforts. Have been there often. But that's actually one of he few times I've watched cricket and felt genuinely sorry for a batting line up. You don't get many occasions where bowling is just too fast and too physically intimidating for good test players. I've experienced it at a far far lower level and it ****s with your head. To be as good as those blokes are/ were and have it happen is another thing entirely.

I mean, when you're hoping to jag a single so you can face Ryan Harris.....

 

[stephen]

I don't think I've ever seen anything like Johnson in those tests. Not ever. He was doing to batsmen in helmets, chest guards and arm guards what the Windies quartet did to blokes before the invention of helmets.

It was intimidating and I was at times seriously worried that a batsman might get seriously injured or worse. It was great to watch but it was unfair to the batsmen. It was like Brett Lee vs Piers for 5 tests.

If Johnson had have bowled at that level across his entire career he'd be first picked in everyone's ATG sides.