The bowling performances thing is over - go back to your lives

So that's all 10 of our 10 Great Bowling Performances. The other thing that we should have pointed out is that they're all relatively recent. As we said in the original post, it's our top ten. We never saw Jim Laker, so he's not in. That's the way it works.

Apologies to A P Webster for the omission of Dominic Cork's 'champagne' hat trick. It was in the original 10, if that makes you feel any better, but then it got bumped because Darren Gough's hat trick was against Australia. Technically there was no reason why we couldn't have two hat tricks, but, er, we can't defend ourself, actually, so we're going to stop typing now.

One day we'll write 10 Great Batting Performances, but it's actually harder work than we thought. Despite the glaring lack of facts, we still had to check loads of stuff to make sure we hadn't dreamed it. About three of Spider-man's bowling performances got the heave-ho because of that.

Curtly Ambrose v Australia, 7-1 – ten great bowling performances

This one’s the exception. It doesn’t involve England. However, it’s as close to perfection as you’re likely to find. Curtly Ambrose’s final bowling figures after Australia’s first innings at the WACA in 1992/93 were 7-25, which is impressive enough in itself. However, there was one spell of bowling where he took seven wickets for just a single run. That is just astounding. We used the word ‘perfection’ earlier and there’s not much more to add.

You can watch it here. The only down-side is that it took place in Australia, so there’s not as much fuss from the crowd as we’d like.

10 Great Bowling Performances.

Mark Butcher hits his fourth hundred of the season

Mark Butcher hit another hundred. It's hard to get too worked up about his form this season when he's being monumentally upstaged by Mark Ramprakash in just about every innings. Maybe he should get himself a comedy helmet to attract the crowd's attention when they're batting together. There aren't enough comedy helmets in cricket. It could be the shape of, er, a cricket ball... No. It's a bad idea. No comedy helmets.

Nick Compton evades us

Don't worry. It's not another Rob Key thing. We're not physically camping out in Nick Compton's back garden. We can't be in two places at once, after all.

Nick Compton has rather craftily hit four hundreds this season. We remember precisely two of these. This is no surprise, you might think. But it is. We always check every scorecard and we pay particular attention to Nick Compton, because he's Denis Compton's grandson and the proper media are all over him like coriander on murgh makhani. You might think that we don't care what the proper media think, but, you know... we don't want to be left out.

For those of you who don't know, Nick's grandfather, Denis Compton averaged 50 in Tests back when that was bloody hard to do. At the minute, Matthew Hayden averages more than Denis Compton. You don't need any more proof that statistics can be deceptive. 60% of all statistics are a little bit misleading; a further 15% can be taken one of two ways; and 8% are misread or misquoted. Those, ladies and gentlemen, are FACTS.

Mark Ramprakash passes 2,000 runs

Mark Ramprakash yesterday passed 2,000 runs. That's 2,000 first-class runs. And that's this season alone. Some players barely make that in a career. We're increasingly sceptical that we're going to make it, if we're honest.

Cricket writers always cite instances where a batsman has passed 1,000 runs for the season or whatever. Most of us don't have a clue what that means or how significant that is. We can put Mark Ramprakash's achievement into context to a degree.

Mark Ramprakash has, at the time of writing, hit 2,044 runs at 113.55. That's a big average for one thing, but we're concentrating on runs scored. The second highest run-scorer in first-class cricket is South African, H D Ackerman, who's hit 1,490 runs at 70.95. Then it's John Crawley, 1,411 at 67.19; then Murray Goodwin, 1,376 at 62.54; Andy Flower, 1,361 at 75.61 and Darren Lehmann, 1,272 at 70.66.

Basically, there's a fairly steady stream of run totals until you get to second place and then there's a gigantic jump to Mark Ramprakash. That's how well he's played this season: About a third better than anyone else.

Maybe he really wanted Galvatron (pictured) and his dad said he'd get him Galvatron if Mark could make 2,000 first-class runs this season. Mark's dad would have said this deliberately being certain that Mark would never manage to hit 2,000 first-class runs this season. Well the joke's on you, Mr Ramprakash. You're going to have to fork out for a sweet Transformer now. Well done Mark. Next year you should try for Grimlock.

Mohammad Asif plays old school one-day cricket

We get the impression that that should be 'old skool', but frankly, we're down with the kids enough already. There's no need to go overboard, is there? Not where spelling's concerned anyway: Spelling rocks.

Anyway, all we were going to say was that Mohammad Asif, in addition to taking a few wickets, bowled a few maidens - three on the trot at one point. His ten overs went for 28 runs, which is practically unheard of these days. In keeping with our pretty-much-forgotten-about Equal Rights For Bowlers Campaign, well done Mohammad Asif. You're our poster boy for today.

And remember kids: Spelling correctly according to the arbitrary standardisation of some middle-class, south-eastern Englishmen from the 18th century is cool. Deliberately spelling things incorrectly makes you worse than a murderer.

Ian Bell is one of England's better one-day batsmen

Ian Bell is one of England's better batsmen full stop. He's better than us. He's better than Dale Winton. He's better than Basil Brush.

Perhaps we should narrow it down. Of all the batsmen who've played for England's one-day team recently, Ian Bell is a batsman who actually deserves his place in the side. His 88 today against Pakistan was not that eyecatching, but frankly England need runs. England need wickets too, but that's a separate issue. Early on he seemed to edge about eight balls in a row, but then, shortly afterwards, he was given a short-pitched delivery and he put it away. Many batsmen would have been thinking they were on borrowed time, whereas Ian Bell seemed to have forgotten all about his difficulties. One ball at a time people.

Ian Bell's been having a good summer. He's scored hundreds aplenty (in international cricket for a change) and he's got solidity in one-day cricket, which is a rare commodity indeed amongst Englishmen. He actually averaged nearly 40 in one-day internationals prior to this game. It's not from many games and he hasn't hit a hundred, but that's better than we were expecting. Ian Bell's better than a lot of people expect. He kind of got a bit of a bad name as the worst English batsman during the Ashes, but it's an undeserved reputation. He's still very young and he'll put it right.

Ian Bell was the name of one of the guys who wrote Elite for the BBC Micro. Elite was ahead of its time, but the most amazing aspect of it was that the creators wrote it in binary code. We love binary code. We actually have more than one joke about binary code. Here's one:

11000100100001010110

It's totally meaningless and not remotely funny! That's the joke!

We'll save the other one, eh?

Devon Malcolm v South Africa, 9-57 – ten great bowling performances

The story goes that while batting against South Africa at the Oval in 1994, Devon Malcolm was hit on the head by a bouncer. “Right,” he said. “You guys are history”.

This story came about because somebody asked Devon something like: “So, Devon, you took 9-57. It was an amazing performance. Did it have anything to do with being hit on the head while batting? Did you say: ‘You guys are history’?”

Maybe that’s an exaggeration, but it’s certainly one of those romantic stories where a player’s spurred into great deeds by some specific incident that probably isn’t true. Whatever the case, Devon Malcolm knocked seven shades of something out of South Africa’s long batting line-up in a series of high-paced three over bursts. It was proper fast bowling.

10 Great Bowling Performances.

Shane Warne v England, 4-31 – ten great bowling performances

Maybe it’s because it’s fresher in our mind, but Shane Warne’s performance in the fourth Ashes Test of 2005 seems representative of the man and his hold over English batsmen and supporters. The only surprise is that he didn’t win Australia the match.

England were in the driving seat. They were 32-0 in their fourth innings and needed fewer than a hundred to win. The pitch was as flat as the crowd at a celebration of our career. Warne came on to bowl and the entire series changed in an instant. From a position where England were waiting to go 2-1 up with one to play, they were suddenly pondering losing the chance to regain the Ashes. It was partly skill on Warne’s part, but as much as anything it was just his presence. Years and years of defeat have conditioned the English to fear Warne and think that he can do anything. Because of that, he pretty much can.

Before they knew it, England were seven wickets down. Panic had set in. Never has such a small target seemed so impossible. We started ticking off the runs to keep ourself calm. Then when that stopped working, we had a beer. Then when that stopped working, we just sort of jumped around shouting: “No, no, please, no,” over and over again.

He may have only taken four wickets himself, but basically Warne was responsible for all seven that fell that day.

10 Great Bowling Performances.

Shahid Afridi helps Pakistan win Twenty20 match

We feel that we should at least comment on Pakistan's victory in the Twenty20. Mike Yardy had a decent international debut, hitting 24 not out off 14 balls and taking 1-20, but the most newsworthy contribution as far as King Cricket's concerned was from Shahid Afridi: 28 off 10 balls.

We were going to write lots of 'ooh, imagine Shahid Afridi playing Twenty20' sorts of things, but then we realised that this actually conflicts with the reason why we love Shahid Afridi. The genius of Shahid Afridi is in his complete disregard for the match situation. He's not going to bat any differently for Twenty20. He's the one player in the world whose run-rate will probably end up much the same in Twenty20 as it will in Test cricket. In reality, Twenty20 is the worst place to watch him bat because everyone else is doing much the same thing. In Test cricket he's a man alone.

We have a cat called Afridi. Here he is:


Unfortunately, our hopes of his being the first non-human to play for England were dealt a bitter blow by his revelation that he doesn't have opposable thumbs. This means that he can't even grip a cricket bat, let alone play a cover drive.

His development as a leg-spinner is being hampered by his tendency to look bemused and then wander off during training. Also, given the choice between standing in the sink and performing fielding drills, Afridi inevitably opts for standing in the sink.

Matthew Hoggard v New Zealand, 7-63 – ten great bowling performances

A swing bowler in our list of great bowling performances? Regular readers will know how unlikely this is. But wait. It’s not pace, per se, that we’re in awe of, it’s destructivity and given the right conditions a medium-pacer can become lethal.

Matthew Hoggard took 7-63 in Christchurch in a magnificent display of swing bowling that was totally and irreversibly overshadowed by the most staggering innings imaginable.

Hoggard also took 7-61 to win a Test against South Africa once. Everyone remembers this one though and anyway, it happened later. The Christchurch match was Hoggard’s arrival.

10 Great Bowling Performances.

Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis v England, a collapse every time – ten great bowling performances

This is how we remember it: England are batting; they reach 200-0; the ball starts to reverse swing; England are all out for 210.

In reality it was never quite this simple. For one thing Pakistan often had Mushtaq Ahmed or Saqlain Mushtaq taking their fair share of wickets, but there is no denying the quality of Wasim and Waqar’s bowling. Being as this is supposedly about great bowling performances, we’ll have to pick one. You could pick any. Based solely on the scorecard we’ll go for the fifth Test in 1992. In the first innings Wasim Akram took 6-67. In the second innings Waqar Younis took 5-52. Okay? Will that do you?

In many ways Wasim Akram was the perfect fast bowler. He could be taller, if you were actually going for perfection, but that’s about the only thing that could be improved upon. He hid the ball on his approach to the crease and constantly surprised the batsman with his no-jump delivery stride. He swung the ball both ways with the new ball, but particularly with the old one. This he did with unparalleled accuracy. He could bowl bouncers and yorkers at will and he was very, very fast. He actually managed to snap a stump in bowling Chaminda Vaas once. That delivery was the middle of a hat trick as well. Is there anyone whose fantasies even come close to that? Oh and he was a left-armer who could bowl as effectively from over or around the wicket.

Waqar Younis was an altogether simpler bowler. He wasn’t without guile by any means but didn’t perhaps have the same ability to swing the ball both ways that Wasim had. However, Waqar had a delivery that no-one can match: The dipping, inswinging yorker delivered slightly faster than light off a turbo-charged shovel going downhill with a following wind. Er, it was fast anyway. Faster than Wasim. Even today, to have your toes broken by an inswinging yorker is to be ‘Waqared’. If you’ve got a delivery like that, you don’t need any others. The trick was in Waqar’s slightly round-armed action which meant the ball swung at an angle. As well as veering sharply towards the stumps, it also led batsmen to believe they were facing a full toss, when in fact the ball would dip towards stumps or toes.

We get really excited about Wasim and Waqar bowling. It was mysterious and exotic and deadly. No-one’s that good any more.

10 Great Bowling Performances.

It's James Kirtley's day not Dominic Cork's

Much as we'd have loved to have been right in our earlier post about how Dominic Cork's batting might prove decisive to the outcome of the C&G final, in the end, we were a whisker out. While Cork was arguably the only batsman to look at all comfortable in this match, he finished as the last man standing as Lancashire's other batsmen all lost their wickets. James Kirtley was hero with the ball taking a Mark Ealham-esque five lbws for 27 runs. Cork finished on 35 not out.

We were never remotely in favour of James Kirtley playing for England. He's not massively quick and he wouldn't strike fear into the heart of our cats - and our cats are scared of breakfast sometimes. He is a decent bowler though and today's his day. Well done. He's had a hard time with having an action on the chucking borderline throughout his career, so we don't begrudge him his success. Even if it was at the expense of Lancashire, the shameful shower of bottlers (Cork excepted). 'Shameless shower of bottlers' doesn't make any sense, does it? They don't deserve sense, the shameless shower of bottlers.

Darren Gough v Australia, hat trick – ten great bowling performances

It was a hat trick and it was against Australia. What more do you need to know?

We always thought that Darren Gough didn’t bowl enough inswinging yorkers. It’s a great delivery and we wanted him to bowl one every single ball. On one occasion at the SCG, he did bowl a couple and ended up with a hat trick. We were right. Everyone else was wrong. We win. Yorkers are great. Hat tricks are better. Short statements are bad. Stopping would be good.

10 Great Bowling Performances.

C&G final - Sajid Mahmood takes 3-16

Bowlers on top. Lancashire on top. Sajid Mahmood on top. We're in our element. We're also underneath an awful lot of cricketers.

Lancashire really shouldn't throw this away now, but big matches don't always follow normal rules. However, with Stuart Law and Nathan Astle in the side, Lancashire have experienced batsmen who've experienced big games before. Dominic Cork too, lower down the order, might yet have a part to play with the bat.

We were a bit concerned at the start of the game to see that Lancashire had only selected three batsmen. Everyone else is an all-rounder or a wicketkeeper. We wouldn't do that. We'd have more batsmen. We're cowardly.

Darrell Hair's mental well-being called into question

Apparently, following the affair - which for the sake of brevity we'll call: 'ball-tampering-allegations-followed-by-a-team-and-then-umpires-on-strike-gate' - Darrell Hair asked for some money and retirement. Then he withdrew his request and got on with shouting 'no ball' at the nearest genius.

If you want to know more about his request then go to a proper news website. Perhaps you can find one that's not calling the whole thing: 'ball-tampering-allegations-followed-by-a-team-and-then-umpires-on-strike-gate'.

For us, the big news is that Darrell Hair is clearly demented. You want proof? We'll give you proof.

Elsewhere in the e-mail where he pleaded for cash, Hair also revealed that he has come to reside in the UK. Darrell Hair, a man not short of a bob or two, has decided to leave Australia with all its space and its high standard of living. Instead, he's opted to cram his gargantuan frame into some tiny flat on this rain-spattered isle where it's totally dark for six months a year. Demented.

The only other explanation is that his entire family think he's a bastard. We don't know him, so we're not making any rash pronouncements. We wouldn't want to go on record saying something offensive about a public figure, so we're not going to make a decision as to whether he's demented or a bastard. As far as we're concerned, he could be either.

Muttiah Muralitharan v England, 16 wickets in a match – ten great bowling performances

“Sri Lanka are rubbish,” said English cricket. “We’ll only give them one Test. They’re lucky to get that, quite frankly.”

“Whatever,” said Murali and promptly took 16 wickets as Sri Lanka kicked England’s arse so thoroughly that English cricket still sheds a tear when it so much as thinks about sitting in a nice comfy armchair.

Muttiah Muralitharan took 7-155 in the first innings and the British media said: ‘If only he had some support’. Muttiah Muralitharan then took 9-65 in the second innings as Sri Lanka won by ten wickets and the British media said: ‘Oh my God. Imagine if he had some support.’

Murali then went home and said: “Maybe when England have got a genius playing for them we’ll let them have a return match in Sri Lanka. But not before then.”

Of course Murali didn’t say that really. He’s too nice. Besides, he doesn’t need to stoop to anything like that because he’s clearly, eternally, unarguably SO MUCH BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. Hats off.

10 Great Bowling Performances

Uglier than a 100% bald Merv Hughes (eyebrows and everything)

We got sent a thing. It's great, so we're publishing it here. We'll also include the writing that came with the thing. The writing kind of explains the thing, but it also bigs us up a bit and we're not quite cool enough to shrug off praise, be it 'faint', 'fawning' or 'quasi-religious'. You're all failing on the last count, by the way.

Anyway. ScottC sent the writing that explains the thing. The thing too. Here's the writing:

"I made this, and felt so proud of myself that I though I'd share it with you, as you are officially my Third Favourite Cricket Writer Of All Time (after Andrew Miller and Rob Smyth (does he even count?) and just ahead of Lawrence Booth and Simon Hughes). Please note that this is not in any way hollow flattery intended to persuade you to put my picture on your website. Obviously.

"If you can name all four (recent) England test cricketers in this attractive composite, then treat yourself to a nice cake, or something."

And here's the thing:

Third! Of all time! That's pretty damn good in our book. We're particularly pleased to have beaten Booth. That's because we like Booth, not because we want to deny him a podium place.

As regards the competition aspect, we'll level with you all. There is no cake to give away. Scott does say, 'treat yourself'. He doesn't say: 'Maybe if your readers get it, you could treat them to some cake'. It's Scott's work and we're not going to argue.

Who are the four recent England Test cricketers who go to make up this Frankenstein's monster of the outfield?

We've a horrible suspicion that we recognise the chin.

Andy Caddick v West Indies, four wickets in an over – ten great bowling performances

The West Indies’ tour of England in 2000 was a real turning point for us as a fan of both England and destructive bowling. Prior to this point, England had solid bowlers. Suddenly they had bowlers who could instigate collapses. With England at the time being no better than a middling side, the potential for batting collapses from the opposition played an important straw-clutching role for us as a spectator.

It was of course Andy Caddick and Darren Gough who were the destructors in this new fantasy land of ours. Earlier in the summer the two of them combined with Dominic Cork to bowl out West Indies for 54 in a fantastic match in which England were to come from behind to win by two wickets. However, we’ve plumped for Andy Caddick’s four wickets in an over as the defining moment of the summer.

West Indies did marginally better in this innings, making 61 all out, but the feeling of delirious chaos was more palpable while Andy Caddick was taking four wickets in seven balls (there was a no-ball). You just didn’t know where it was going to end. Our bowlers were unstoppable. When England next played Australia, we were going to bowl them out for a single run. It was amazing.

If we had to sum it up, we’d say: Full length, a good deal of swing and cartwheeling stumps. Bliss.

Apologies for the entirely inappropriate picture. It's just such a great photo. For those who might be wondering: Andy Caddick's the one WITH ears. Two of them.

10 Great Bowling Performances

The rest of England's one-day squad

It's pretty much as you'd expect it, which is actually quite a good thing as far as England's one-day squad is concerned. You're never quite sure who's going to make an appearance normally.

Darren Gough's back (as in 'returned'), which is, er, we really don't know. We do like Darren Gough, but we're worried it's just a sort of residual love from back in the day. Nowadays he's kind of hefty and not so dynamic. Unless, as we suspected, he's been selected as a batsman. Yes. That's it. We're happy. Batsman are allowed to be older. Dynamic Goughie's back to - ah, you know. We can't be bothered finishing this paragraph.

Also returning is Rikki Clarke, who we said should return to the one-day team and has. The influence of King Cricket is still dictated by coincidence and generic pronouncements, but still. We're claiming that one.

Ed Joyce is in as well. Hopefully he'll last more than four minutes this time.

Stuart Broad - a surprise selection?

About as surprising as breakfast television. We've somehow managed to avoid writing about Stuart Broad up until now. We just figured that everyone would know about him and we weren't really imparting any new information.

Stuart Broad's 20. He's six-foot-six, which is seven metres in metric. He's also former England batsman, Chris Broad's son. We thought that we could just about remember Chris Broad playing for England, but we weren't sure. Then we PROVED it to ourself. Chris Broad's initials are B C - we wouldn't know this unless we'd spent time perusing scorecards which had his name on.

Stuart Broad's been Leicestershire's most successful bowler this season with 40 wickets at 31.40, including four five-wicket hauls. That's not jaw-dropping, but it was better than Mohammad Asif managed while he was at the club. Everyone's been talking about Broad all season. We're a bit sick of it to be honest. We wish we'd made him one of our Ones To Watch though. Is he too mainstream for inclusion next season? Nah. We make the rules.

Mike Yardy - surprise selection?

Mike Yardy of Sussex has been selected in England's one-day squad for the upcoming series against Pakistan. His is a slightly unexpected selection, but we wouldn't say it was a surprise. Somewhere in between. Like when you're all set to wait in all day for a delivery, but it actually arrives first thing in the morning.

David Graveney said something about Yardy's part-time off-spin, meaning he would be vying for a place with Jamie Dalrymple for a place in the short-term. We wouldn't pay too much attention to that. More likely the selectors have got their eyes on Yardy's batting ability and are easing him into international cricket. He may not even play, but he's clearly in their thoughts and they want him around.

Mike Yardy was one of the big run-scorers during the last A tour. He averages 46.76 with the bat this season and 38.34 over his career. Cricinfo says that his nickname is 'Yards'. If his surname were 'Yards' his nickname would be 'Yardy'. There's no skill in just having a nickname for the sake of it. No skill at all.

Glenn McGrath v England, 5-53 – ten great bowling performances

Glenn McGrath’s ended up with better figures on any number of occasions, but this was particularly memorable for us.

In the first Test of the 2005 Ashes series he reduced England to 21-5, taking all five wickets to fall. Australia had been showing signs of weakness all summer. They lost a one-day international to Bangladesh, they lost the Twenty20 match against England by a mile. They lost a couple of other one-dayers and Alastair Cook flayed them alive in a warm-up game. Then Steve Harmison bowled them out for 190 and we were a bit worried that victory wouldn’t be so satisfying against this aged, crumbling relic of a side.

Then Glenn McGrath waltzed in, same as usual, and tore England apart, same as usual. Basically, it set up the entire series. Every piece of theatre needs a sense of triumph against the odds and a villain too, so thank you Glenn McGrath.

It took us a long, long time to accept that Glenn McGrath was all that good because he’s not particularly quick and in our book fast bowling’s just that. He is 'that good' though. He’s one of the greatest bowlers to have ever played the game.

10 Great Bowling Performances

Lancashire sign Murali Kartik

Not as good as signing The Murali, but better than sticking with Brad Hodge. In truth, Murali Kartik is a bit of a stop-gap operating on a match-by-match basis while Brad Hodge recovers from a pain in the neck (rumoured to be some sort of pop-up on his home computer).

Lancashire's stop-gap signings tend to be better than their season-long ones, to be honest. It's Murali Kartik's second stint at Old Trafford. He played a couple of matches last year, taking ten wickets on his debut and, as we remember it, putting in a match-winning performance in the second as well. Lancashire also signed Dinesh Mongia in desperation the year before. He may well have topped Lancashire's batting averages and took a few wickets too.

Brad Hodge has been... all right.

Steve Harmison v West Indies, 7-12 – ten great bowling performances

Steve Harmison is that rarest of things, an England bowler who scares the opposition. Not that there haven’t been good England bowlers in the last few years, we’re just talking about actual physical fear. Facing Steve Harmison is intimidating because he’s tall and he’s fast. England usually produce wily medium pacers who get thrashed to all parts as soon as they find themselves further than a hundred miles from home.

In days gone by, England’s batsmen used to visibly wilt in the West Indies. The Windies would field four fast bowlers, prepare a rock-hard pitch and pepper England into submission. In 2004 the tables were turned. England fielded a tall fast bowler called Steve Harmison and he set about building himself a reputation.

At Sabina Park in Jamaica, Steve Harmison took seven wickets for just 12 runs as the West Indies were all out for their lowest ever total of just 47. He bowled eight maidens and was totally dominant. It was merciless. For all we know, he went into the Windies changing rooms and laughed for a full 45 minutes afterwards, poking tearful batsmen throughout. Test cricket’s hard and remorseless. For once England looked like they actually recognised that.

10 Great Bowling Performances

10 Great Bowling Performances

We're doing a series of posts. It's got a start and an end and things will appear regularly, so you can look forward to stuff rather than just arriving at King Cricket and going: 'Oh, they've not bothered writing anything.' Or: 'My word. They've written about twenty things in the last half hour. I can't be bothered reading that much'. So, starting tomorrow, we're going to look at 10 great bowling performances.

Now let's get a couple of things straight: These are OUR 10 great bowling performances and as such they are massively influenced by our prejudices. Here are things that we like: England, fast bowlers, weird spinners. Bad news for New Zealand's Chris Harris. Good news for Steve Harmison. In truth it means that most, although not all of the 10, feature England, as those are the matches which we have inevitably taken most interest over the years. Often England are on the receiving end. We probably love cricket more than we love England.

Secondly, there's no sort of transparent ratings system. This is always the case with King Cricket - you know that. It's just based on 'feel'. We could grade our 'feel' from one to 100 if you wanted, but frankly we'd be making it up to keep you quiet.

Links to the full 10 will appear below. There's no order to them. It's just 10 Great Bowling Performances.




Steve Harmison v West Indies, 7-12.
Glenn McGrath v England, 5-53.
Andy Caddick v West Indies, four wickets in an over.
Muttiah Muralitharan v England, 16 wickets in a match.
Darren Gough v Australia, hat trick.
Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis v England, a collapse every time.
Matthew Hoggard v New Zealand, 7-63.
Shane Warne v England, 4-31.
Devon Malcolm v South Africa, 9-57.
Curtly Ambrose v Australia, 7-1.