Abdullah719
T20I Captain
- Joined
- Apr 16, 2013
- Runs
- 44,825
"The first ball Amir bowled to me at Leeds swung so far, it made me look stupid" : Mitchell Johnson
Mitchell Johnson will never forget one delivery in particular from Mohammad Amir. It’s been playing on his mind as he considers the plight the Australian batsmen will have to face when the young star is armed with a pink ball in Brisbane this week.
“It was at the first ball he bowled to me at Leeds,” the former Test bowler recalls. “I felt it was going down leg, so I just went to clip it and the next thing I knew my off peg was flying out of the ground. I’d played straight, but it had completely beaten me. It swung so far it made me look stupid.”
That was 2010.
If you were in Cairns on Thursday night or saw the highlights, you would know what Johnson was talking about.
Amir ripped the heart out of an Australian XI batting line-up, swinging the pink ball under the lights and through the defences of the top order.
His first ball swung back and bowled Jimmy Pierson. The second swung back and trapped Will Bosisto in front. The hat-trick was avoided but Jake Winter didn’t last beyond Amir’s second over.
The Pakistani left-armer summoned memories of Wasim Akram when he first arrived and revived them in the devastating spell against Australia’s best young batsmen who found themselves groping, like Johnson, for balls they thought were here but were in fact there.
Amir finished with 3-15 from 10 overs.
“He was such an impressive bowler, all the batsmen in the dressing room were talking about how good he was the summer before when he’d come down to Australia,” Johnson said.
The Australians had first seen Amir as a 17-year-old in two Tests during 2009-10.
He’d taken a five-wicket haul at the MCG.
Johnson watched him closely.
“He was just so natural. He had good control, he seemed to know exactly where he wanted the ball to go and he is always up at the batsman,” he said.
“When we got to England, he was unplayable when it was seaming and I think it’s going to be the same story under lights at the Gabba, especially if they leave some grass on the wicket.”
He had taken 50 wickets before turning 18, but six years later he has only 76.
Amir was caught up in a match-fixing sting organised by a British newspaper, lured in by his captain, Salman Butt. He spent time in prison and five years outside the game. “I felt for him,” Johnson said. “It’s good to see him back. It was a shame he missed out on all that time. Who knows where he’d be now if he’d kept bowling?”
Some believed he should never return to the game. Michael Atherton was prominent in championing his cause and his remorse has been apparent from the beginning. He made his comeback in Pakistan’s brilliant victory over England at Lord’s in July. It was six years since he’d played a Test — at the same ground.
“He made a bad mistake and he deserved some punishment, there is no getting away from that,” Atherton said during the controversy. “Five years out of the game and going to jail is a pretty heavy punishment — I think it was a six-month sentence, of which he served three.
“But I do think there were some mitigating factors and that’s why I’ve had some sympathy for him and why I believe he deserves a second chance.
“The first circumstance is the nature of the sting. It’s important to understand that this was not a betting scam. This was a sting set up to show that players were corruptible.
“It is perfectly fair to argue, I think, that the newspaper was creating a crime and enticing people into crime, although the justification was that the journalist had been given a tip-off.
“They turned to the youngest and most vulnerable player in that team and put him under pressure to bowl those no-balls.”
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...FbaXH9w5778m7g8Sw&sig2=O6CKl4T6-L_w7RQdcS6PKw
Mitchell Johnson will never forget one delivery in particular from Mohammad Amir. It’s been playing on his mind as he considers the plight the Australian batsmen will have to face when the young star is armed with a pink ball in Brisbane this week.
“It was at the first ball he bowled to me at Leeds,” the former Test bowler recalls. “I felt it was going down leg, so I just went to clip it and the next thing I knew my off peg was flying out of the ground. I’d played straight, but it had completely beaten me. It swung so far it made me look stupid.”
That was 2010.
If you were in Cairns on Thursday night or saw the highlights, you would know what Johnson was talking about.
Amir ripped the heart out of an Australian XI batting line-up, swinging the pink ball under the lights and through the defences of the top order.
His first ball swung back and bowled Jimmy Pierson. The second swung back and trapped Will Bosisto in front. The hat-trick was avoided but Jake Winter didn’t last beyond Amir’s second over.
The Pakistani left-armer summoned memories of Wasim Akram when he first arrived and revived them in the devastating spell against Australia’s best young batsmen who found themselves groping, like Johnson, for balls they thought were here but were in fact there.
Amir finished with 3-15 from 10 overs.
“He was such an impressive bowler, all the batsmen in the dressing room were talking about how good he was the summer before when he’d come down to Australia,” Johnson said.
The Australians had first seen Amir as a 17-year-old in two Tests during 2009-10.
He’d taken a five-wicket haul at the MCG.
Johnson watched him closely.
“He was just so natural. He had good control, he seemed to know exactly where he wanted the ball to go and he is always up at the batsman,” he said.
“When we got to England, he was unplayable when it was seaming and I think it’s going to be the same story under lights at the Gabba, especially if they leave some grass on the wicket.”
He had taken 50 wickets before turning 18, but six years later he has only 76.
Amir was caught up in a match-fixing sting organised by a British newspaper, lured in by his captain, Salman Butt. He spent time in prison and five years outside the game. “I felt for him,” Johnson said. “It’s good to see him back. It was a shame he missed out on all that time. Who knows where he’d be now if he’d kept bowling?”
Some believed he should never return to the game. Michael Atherton was prominent in championing his cause and his remorse has been apparent from the beginning. He made his comeback in Pakistan’s brilliant victory over England at Lord’s in July. It was six years since he’d played a Test — at the same ground.
“He made a bad mistake and he deserved some punishment, there is no getting away from that,” Atherton said during the controversy. “Five years out of the game and going to jail is a pretty heavy punishment — I think it was a six-month sentence, of which he served three.
“But I do think there were some mitigating factors and that’s why I’ve had some sympathy for him and why I believe he deserves a second chance.
“The first circumstance is the nature of the sting. It’s important to understand that this was not a betting scam. This was a sting set up to show that players were corruptible.
“It is perfectly fair to argue, I think, that the newspaper was creating a crime and enticing people into crime, although the justification was that the journalist had been given a tip-off.
“They turned to the youngest and most vulnerable player in that team and put him under pressure to bowl those no-balls.”
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...FbaXH9w5778m7g8Sw&sig2=O6CKl4T6-L_w7RQdcS6PKw
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