Quote:If anything, Johnson was even more terrifying at Supersport Park than he was at any time during the Ashes series: bodies were battered, helmets were clanged, bats were broken, and blood was drawn. Batsmen who walked out to face the missiles that he consistently delivered at over 90 mph could be forgiven for thinking they had more to lose than just their wickets. They should probably have heeded the line that was added to a song in the musical “Old Miss Gibbs” that ran during the bodyline series of 1932-1933 as Harold Larwood threatened life and limb, and placed themselves in the firing line only “After kissing their wives, and insuring their lives.”

Australia would be a good team without Johnson, but with him bowling as he has done for the last six tests, they are simply unbeatable. The South African team has now been shaken and its confidence dented. Hopefully, they will not make the mistakes England did and seek to assign blame where none is warranted. If they are to come out of this series with any positive results a way has to be found to neutralize Johnson; and short of him falling over in a heap, or returning to his old wayward ways, there is hardly anything they can do.

The simple truth is that fast bowling, at its mightiest, is the most disruptive force in cricket, and we are all very fortunate to be currently witnessing some of the most ruthless and effective feats of fast bowling the game has seen. Nostalgia may impel us to recall the Bodyline series, or Tyson in Australia in 1954/55, or Lillee and Thomson’s fearful pounding of England and the West Indies in the mid seventies, or the famous four-pronged attacks that sprung from the Caribbean during the seventies and eighties, but it is difficult to see Johnson’s efforts lagging behind anyone in the game’s history.

Quote:The simple truth is that fast bowling, at its mightiest, is the most disruptive force in cricket,