Ben Hilfenhaus

Australia’s bowlers aren’t flattered by comparisons with the past

Largely because they’re a bit toss. 425 ain’t good enough and England haven’t knackered out Australia’s four bowlers as much as they should have done.

Mitchell Johnson

Mitchell Johnson or James Anderson? Easy.

Johnson has promised a lot, but unless you love non-bouncing wides, he hasn’t really delivered. We love non-bouncing wides from ‘once in a generation’ Australian opening bowlers, so we’re suddenly a massive Mitchell Johnson fan.

Ben Hilfenhaus

When the ball swings, Ben Hilfenhaus looks a handy bowler, otherwise he’s a bit innocuous. This makes him an Australian James Anderson, only without the inswinger or the reverse outswinger, or the reverse inswinger.

He’s basically a quarter as good as Jimmy.

Peter Siddle

Peter Siddle’s the opposite of Mitchell Johnson. Where Johnson seems to get wickets while bowling dross, Siddle bowls well and gets nowt for it. He generally acts like a dick, which is what you want from Australian cricketers, so paradoxically, we find ourself liking him.

Nathan Hauritz

When you’re describing an Australian spinner as ‘worthy’, you know you want pitches that offer a bit of turn.

We’ve gone easy on Mitchell Johnson in this post. We didn’t over at The Wisden Cricketer.

Ben Hilfenhaus is quietly impressive

Midway through yesterday’s play, there was a strange, unholy sound in our front room. We eventually concluded that an Australian was trying to communicate with us.

After concealing all sleeves from sight so that it didn’t get distressed, we eventually managed to deduce what it was trying to tell us. It transpired that it was impressed by two things:

1. That Lara Bingle can talk and sit at the same time. It didn’t think The Bingle had this capacity.
2. Ben Hilfenhaus’s bowling.

We agreed on both counts.