Mitchell Johnson joins 300 wicket club

Mitchell Johnson today became only the eighth pace bowler in the history of cricket to have a 300-wicket, 2000-run Test double, thus giving Australia a belief that there is still something left in the game for them before Steven Finn reopened their scars.

The players who have taken 300 wickets and made 2000 runs in the history of the game include the likes of Kapil Dev, Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Shaun Pollock, Richard Hadlee, and Chaminda Vaas . He becomes the 28th member of the 300 wicket club, and fifth Australian entry. Only Shane Warne , Glenn McGrath, Dennis Lillee and Brett Lee had previously achieved the feat of taking 300 Test wickets for Australia.

The Left-arm fast arm pacer had started the match with 299 wickets and did not taste success in his five overs which he bowled on Wednesday’s first day at Edgbaston after Australia’s disappointing collapse to 136

But his third ball on Thursday morning saw Johnson getting to the 300 mark with a superb lifting delivery that got England batsman Jonny Bairstow, who could only glove it to wicket-keeper Peter Nevill. It took him only 2 balls to get his 301st Test wicket when all-rounder Ben Stokes was caught behind for a duck.

Johnson had wrecked havoc in the English camp as he had taken two wickets for no runs in three balls. Johnson’s 69-Test career has not been a bed of roses, when the 33-year-old was dropped when he lost control of both line and length during 2010/11 Ashes series

But 2013/14 series told a different story when he took 37 wickets to help Australia regain the Ashes with a 5-0 rout of their arch-rivals.

The man is a fighter. Despite conceding 111 runs without taking a wicket in the first innings of Australia’s 169-run defeat in the first Test he bounced back strongly when he led Australia’s pace attack in a 405-run thrashing of England that levelled the five-match series at 1-1