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Follow UsShamar Joseph - 7/68 vs Australia at the Gabba
For nearly 3,000 days, since the inception of the day-night Test back in 2015, Australia had not lost a pink-ball Test under lights.
And then Shamar Joseph happened.
A rookie essentially picked out of the blue, Joseph rattled Australia on debut in Adelaide, picking a five-fer in his first-ever bowling innings. And then he backed it up with one of the greatest fast-bowling displays you’re bound to see.
Defending 216 in the fourth innings, Australia were cruising at 113/2. And then Joseph came in and blew the chase open, with an injured foot no less, removing four Australian batters in quick succession to reduce the hosts to 136/6. Steve Smith and Mitchell Starc steadied the ship briefly, but Joseph further pinned the Kangaroos down by dismissing both Starc and Pat Cummins.
Poetically, he then finished the job off by castling Josh Hazlewood with a vicious rocket to hand West Indies one of their most famous victories ever, and Australia their first-ever day-night Test defeat.
It was an extraordinary display of endurance and willpower: Joseph bowled 12 straight overs to bowl his side to win, and he did that just hours after a feared broken toe.
The moment was so wholesome that the entirety of Australia celebrated the Windies victory, briefly forgetting that it was their team that slipped to a shock defeat.
Jasprit Bumrah - 6/45 vs England in Visakhapatnam
1-0 down in the series and seemingly not making the most of the toss advantage on a very good Visakhapatnam track, India looked like they were in trouble at 123/2, especially against an English batting lineup that was full of confidence.
Enter Jasprit Bumrah to the rescue.
Bumrah first snarled the huge wicket of Joe Root, getting England’s talisman caught at slip to open the floodgates.
And then he produced one of the deliveries of the century to Ollie Pope - yes, *that* yorker - to not just tilt the contest in India’s favor but send a message to the tourists that they can forget about winning the series as long as he’s present.
Bairstow, Stokes, Hartley, and Anderson all then became Bumrah’s victims as he finished with figures of 6/45 to hand India a 143-run first innings lead on a flat wicket even after an okayish first innings showing with the bat.
As it turned out, the spell from Bumrah did end up turning the series around; England never recovered as India went on to clinch the series 4-1.
Sajid Khan & Noman Ali - 39 wickets @ 17.38 vs England
Noman Ali: 3/101, 8/46, 3/88, 6/42
Sajid Khan: 7/111, 2/93, 6/128, 4/69
This is not one spell per se, but across four different innings in the last two Tests against England, Sajid Khan and Noman Ali produced one of the best showings by any bowling pair ever.
Both Sajid and Noman were drafted into the team after a humiliating loss in Multan. By that point, Pakistan had gone 11 home Tests without a win. Pakistan cricket was being declared ‘dead’, and the series was being considered a write-off even though there were two Tests remaining.
Entering the series under these circumstances, Sajid and Noman, between them, picked 39 of the 40 wickets to fall across the last two series and bowled Pakistan to one of their most important series wins ever.
In the fourth innings of the second Test in Multan, where England were bowled out for 144, Pakistan used just two bowlers. And the spin twins delivered to get the Men in Green back on track.
Mitchell Santner - 7/53 & 6/104 vs India in Pune
In the lead-up to the Pune Test against India, Mitchell Santner had never taken more than three wickets in a Test innings. He had an atrocious record in Asia and his inclusion in the XI, at the expense of Matt Henry, was being touted as ‘good news’ for India, who entered the second Test 1-0 down.
Next thing you know, 291 balls and 13 wickets later, Santner ended up bowling New Zealand to one of the greatest series wins in Test history.
A bowler tailor-made for the conditions, an out-of-form batting line-up short on confidence and a wicket offering more than enough - it proved to be the perfect storm as Santner ran through India.
Santner took 7 in the first innings and, in a way, that whole spell happened in an instant. The real challenge for him was always going to be replicating that showing in the second, particularly while defending a target.
India came with better plans in the second innings, yet that wasn’t enough to stop Santner, who bowled 29 overs and took six wickets, including removing each of India’s top four.
He finished with 13 wickets in the game as New Zealand not only registered a Test series win in India for the first time in their history, but became the first team in 12 years to breach the Indian fortress.
Jasprit Bumrah - 5/30 vs Australia in Perth
If we were to make a list of the best spells bowled by an Indian in Australia, this spell from Bumrah would probably top the list.
As outrageous as Shamar Joseph’s spell was, and as incredible as Santner’s 13-fer was, you probably have to pencil down this spell from Bumrah as the single best spell of bowling witnessed in 2024. Heck, it’s probably the single best spell of fast bowling witnessed in YEARS!
India had just won the toss in Perth and were bowled out for 150 on a surface that looked bowler-friendly but did not look like it had any demons in it. Considering the 150 all-out came on the back of the 0-3 whitewash at home, the general public was absolutely going bonkers. After all of two sessions, the BGT was being seen as a sure-shot 5-0 in favor of the Aussies.
On this backdrop, Bumrah, skippering India in the absence of Rohit Sharma, came in and blew away the Aussie batting unit single-handedly and scarred them so badly that the spell ended up damaging the entire top-order for the remainder of the series.
Bumrah first trapped debutant Nathan McSweeney LBW with one that seamed back in sharply and then delivered a borderline series-defining blow by getting Steve Smith out for a golden duck, once again hurling a rocket that struck the right-hander’s pads. Sandwiched between these two wickets was that of Usman Khawaja, who nicked one to the slip cordon.
Bumrah then rounded the day off with the wicket of Cummins to leave Australia reeling at 59/7.
The team India skipper then came back the next day and got dangerman Alex Carey on his very first over of the day to complete one of the most devastating five-fers in modern times.
What were some of the other best bowling spells from 2024?
Marco Jansen 7/13 vs Sri Lanka in Durban - the joint-quickest seven-fer in Test history (in terms of balls taken)
Washington Sundar 11/115 vs New Zealand in Pune
Tom Hartley 7/62 vs India in Hyderabad
Jayden Seales 4/5 vs Bangladesh in Kingston - the second-most economical spell in Test history
Mohammad Abbas 6/54 vs South Africa in Centurion - 19.3 consecutive overs bowled without a break
