Birthday special: Jeff Thomson – Top 3 spells in international cricket
One of the fastest bowlers to have ever graced the game of cricket, Jeff Thomson was a menace for the batters with his electrifying pace and bounce. The former Aussie bowling great represented the national team for over a decade and formed one of the deadliest fast bowling pairs in cricket history with the mercurial Dennis Lillee. Thomson, with his slinging action, terrorized numerous batters with deadly bouncers, but had to rely more on his seam bowling and variation later in his career after being marred by several injuries. The New South Wales man amassed 200 dismissals in 51 Test appearances for the Australian team. On the eve of his 72nd birthday, here are some of his most breathtaking performances in international cricket.
5/38 against England, 1975
Australia travelled to Birmingham for the first Test match of the renowned Test series against England. The visitors were put in to bat first by the English skipper and the Aussies piled up more than a decent total of 359 runs on the board. The hosts, in their reply, were bundled out for a meagre 101 as Denis Lillee and Max Walker ran riot, scalping five wickets each. England, following on, had equally disastrous second innings and were reduced for 173 runs as Lillee’s bowling partner Jeff Thomson turned the chief tormentor of the England batters, scalping five wickets to hand Australia a victory by an innings and 85 runs.
6/50 against West Indies, 1976
Australia and West Indies clashed in a crunch fourth Test match of the series at Sydney as two cricketing heavyweights fought for the bragging rights in the series. Australia invited the visitors to bat first in the match, who registered 355 runs on the board. The hosts, in their reply, took a lead of 50 runs on the back of a sensational ton by skipper Greg Chappell. But the Windies were helpless in their second innings in front of a rampaging Jeff Thomson, who racked up six wickets to dismiss the West Indians for just 128 runs. Thompson finished with nine wickets in the match as Australia ran out comfortable winners by seven wickets.
6/46 against England, 1975
Jeff Thomson loved playing against arch-rivals England and had his best performance against the Englishmen in the 1975 series, where he scalped a sensational 33 wickets in just five matches, eclipsing the likes of Denis Lillee and Bob Willis. He started off that memorable series with an eye-catching performance as he blew the English batters out of the water with 6/46 in the second innings, adding to his tally of three wickets in the first innings as Australia hammered the visitors by 166 runs in Brisbane.
