The Great Fast Bowlers

After the 1975-76 tour of Australia, Lloyd settled on four fast bowlers who could be rotated in short bursts through a day, with spin used only sparingly.

Source: Wisden · recall

Four fast bowlers meant long run-ups and few overs an hour. The frustration this caused fed into cricket's later minimum-overs-per-day regulation.

Source: Wisden · applied

Roberts disguised a quicker bouncer that followed a slower one, so a batter who had ducked the first comfortably was often caught by the second.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Bird could not hear Holding running in behind him and started calling him Whispering Death. The name captured both the silent approach and the danger at the end of it.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Holding's opening over to Boycott produced five deliveries that beat the bat at extreme pace and a sixth that flattened the off stump. It is often called the over of the century.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Garner's height meant his yorker arrived on a downward path that was hard to dig out. His Test average of 20.97 is among the best of any bowler with 250 wickets.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

England were 183 for two chasing 287, then Garner had five of them for four runs as the innings folded for 194. West Indies retained the trophy.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Marshall took 376 wickets in 81 Tests at 20.94, the best average in that group. He was quick and skiddy from a shortish frame and could swing the ball both ways.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

West Indies went 15 years and 29 series unbeaten. Mark Taylor's Australia won the 1995 series 2-1, taking the Frank Worrell Trophy and the unofficial title of best team.

Source: Wisden · recall

England lost 5-0 at home in 1984 and 5-0 in the Caribbean in 1985-86. Both series were widely called the Blackwash, and England's next home Test win over West Indies, at Headingley in 1991, was their first since 1969.

Source: Wisden · applied

Lillee passed Gibbs's 309 in 1981 and finished with 355 Test wickets. Botham and then Hadlee later overtook him.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Marsh caught 95 of Lillee's Test victims, still the most for any bowler-keeper pair. Many were edges taken standing back to genuine pace.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Lillee bowled through the West Indies series with back pain and was later found to have stress fractures. He wore a brace, missed a year and a half and rebuilt his action.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Lillee batted with an aluminium bat he was marketing. England complained it damaged the ball; after a long stand-off his captain brought out a wooden one and he hurled the metal bat away.

Source: Wisden · applied

Thomson was clocked at 160.6 km/h, faster than anyone measured before. His low, catapult-style release gave batters very little sight of the ball.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Thomson took 33 wickets and Lillee 25 as Australia won 4-1. England called up the veteran Cowdrey mid-series to face the barrage.

Source: Wisden · applied

Thomson and Alan Turner both went for the same catch against Pakistan at Adelaide and collided. The shoulder damage meant he was never quite as fast again.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Hogg's 41 wickets remain a record for an Australia-England series. Australia still lost 5-1, weakened by the World Series split.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Hughes dismissed Curtly Ambrose with the last ball of one over, Patrick Patterson with the first ball of his next, then Gordon Greenidge with the first ball of the second innings.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Johnson's pace and steep bounce ran through England in every Test. His 37 wickets were the most in an Ashes series since the 1980s.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Sarfraz Nawaz is generally named as the first to use reverse swing at Test level. He taught it to Imran Khan, who refined it and passed it on to Wasim and Waqar.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Sarfraz's spell of 7 for 1 in 33 balls turned a certain Australian win into a 71-run defeat, one of the most sudden collapses in Test history.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Miandad saw Wasim bowl in the nets and pushed for his selection. Within weeks Wasim had taken 10 wickets in a Test against New Zealand.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Wasim bowled Lamb with a ball that came back in, then had Lewis first ball. The double strike broke England's chase and Pakistan won by 22 runs.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Wasim was the first to 500 ODI wickets and held the overall record until Muralitharan passed him. He remains the leading left-arm wicket-taker in the format.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Wasim's 257 not out, with 12 sixes, is the highest Test score by a number eight. He and Saqlain Mushtaq added 313 for the eighth wicket.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Imran saw Waqar on television and arranged for him to be picked. The two later opened the bowling together for Pakistan.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Waqar's inswinging yorker, delivered with reverse swing at real pace, produced a stream of bowled and lbw dismissals and a high count of broken boots.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Waqar reached 300 ODI wickets faster, by matches, than almost any bowler in the game's history. He also holds the record for the most five-wicket hauls in the format.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Reverse swing was still poorly understood in England, and the sudden late movement drew tampering claims. The ball was changed in a Lord's one-dayer, but no charge was ever upheld.

Source: Wisden · applied

McGrath's 563 was the most by a pace bowler until James Anderson passed it in 2018. He played 124 Tests at an average of 21.64.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

McGrath hit a nagging length just outside off stump, drew bounce from his height, and rarely gave away runs. Pressure, not pace, forced the errors.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

McGrath predicted 5-0 more than once and often singled out a top-order batter. He dismissed Michael Atherton 19 times in Tests, more than any other bowler managed against one man.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

McGrath's 26 wickets at the 2007 tournament are still the most in a single World Cup. It was his third winner's medal, after 1999 and 2003.

Source: ICC · recall

Donald finished with 330 wickets in 72 Tests at 22.25. He formed a long new-ball partnership with Shaun Pollock after South Africa's return in 1991.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Atherton edged Donald to the keeper on 27 and was given not out. Donald responded with one of the fastest spells seen in England; Atherton made an unbeaten 98 to set up an England win.

Source: Wisden · applied

Steyn took his 439 wickets quickly as well as cheaply. No other bowler with 300 Test wickets has struck as often, a mark of how attacking he was with both new ball and old.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Steyn passed Pollock's 421 to set the South African record and finished on 439 from 93 Tests. Injuries cut short the last years of his career.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Shoaib was clocked at 161.3 km/h against England at Newlands. Brett Lee and Shaun Tait later approached the same speed but did not pass it.

Source: ICC · recall

Bumrah runs in only a few paces and bowls with a hyperextending bowling arm, generating pace and a late, skidding trajectory that makes his yorker very hard to read.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Hadlee reached 400 in his 80th Test and finished with 431 at 22.29. He was knighted in 1990 while still playing, becoming Sir Richard mid-career.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Hadlee took 15 for 123 in the match as New Zealand won by an innings, their first Test victory in Australia. He nearly took all ten first-innings wickets but for a dropped catch.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Walsh reached 500 against South Africa and finished on 519. Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne both passed his total within a few years.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Ambrose took 7 for 1 in 32 balls, one of the most destructive spells recorded. West Indies won by an innings and drew the series to keep the Frank Worrell Trophy.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Ambrose struck in near-darkness on the fourth evening as England fell apart from 40 for one. They lost by 147 runs having needed 194 to win.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Anderson finished with 704 Test wickets, behind only Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne. His 188 caps are the most by any pace bowler.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

As his pace eased Anderson leaned on a wobble-seam delivery whose movement off the pitch was hard to predict, keeping him near the top of the rankings past 40.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied

Australia were 60 all out by lunch on the first day. Broad's 8 for 15 set up an innings win that regained the Ashes, and Ben Stokes held a stunning slip catch during the rout.

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The pair took more than 1,000 Test wickets between them, comfortably the most by any bowling combination. Broad retired in 2023, Anderson a year later.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · recall

Broad had already hit a six with the bat off his last ball faced. He then had Alex Carey caught behind with the final ball he bowled, sealing an England win that levelled the series 2-2.

Source: ESPNcricinfo · applied