Great comeback from Australia, and Johnston. As much as I have agreed with the criticism leveled at him, that was as good as I've seen him bowl in a long time. Maybe dropping him for the second test made a difference?
That was as good as he has bowled EVER. Much better bowling than when he demolished the Saffas. I have never, ever seen Mitchell Johnson bowl with swing like that. There is not a batting line up in the game that will last long against a left armer up around the 140 mark consistently swinging it back down the line. It was almost Akram like. The last time I'd seen something similar from an Australian was when Bruce Reid destroyed the Poms in Melbourne in 91, but even he wasn't bringing it back as much as Mitch was yesterday, nor at his pace. It truly was an outstanding bowling effort.
My problem is are we going to see it again any time soon? There's no question the conditions yesterday at the WACA were perfect for swing and Johnson was getting it to go even with a fairly scrambled seam. When we get to the other 99% of grounds where the breeze isn't helping him swing it back in will he still be able to keep it tidy and bring the odd one in just enough to make them play at and nick the straight ones? History doesn't hold much hope unfortunately. If Johnson bowls anything like that in the 2nd dig Australia will win and win well, but the last time he got a bag full at the WACA the Saffas reeled in 400 4 down. Here's hoping, because if he bowls like that consistently I'll become a fan. Of course I said the same thing about Siddle after the 1st dig at Brisbane and he's bowled nothing but pus since.
This game ain't over. Last year the Windies scored 323 batting last, and SA the year before breezed to 400 after conceding a similar lead as we have on the 1st innings. The year before that we lost to India but still scored the biggest total of the match (340) batting last. Against the Poms in the last series we scored 527 and they scored 350 in the 3rd and 4th innings, the year before that against the saffas again we scored 500 in the 3rd innings and couldn't bowl them out in 126 overs. You have to go all the way back to 04 for the last time a side really struggled in the 4th innings in Perth (McGrath took 8/24 against the Pakis). In other words Perth is a ground that gets easier to bat on the longer the game goes. We will need a lot of runs today before we can be safe.
