How this relentless Australian bowling attack stacks up against the greats

Australia’s Test bowling attack ranks among the best in the world over the last 50 years, having broken new ground as a quartet and taking an unprecedented number of wickets as a four-man unit.

Statistically, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon sit comfortably in the same pantheon as some of the best West Indian attacks from the late ’70s.

Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall and Colin Croft combined hostility with control. People have described facing them as like facing an execution squad, offering no respite from either end.

In Durban against South Africa last week, Australia out-bowled, out-batted and out-fielded their opponents and deserved their decisive victory. Central to the win was the attack.

Like past combinations from the late 1990s and early 2000s – comprising Glenn McGrath, Shane Warne, Jason Gillespie and Brett Lee – today’s attack offers the ultimate balance of precision, elite spin, pace and nagging persistence.

The South African quartet of Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel, Vernon Philander, and Jacques Kallis from the late 2000s and mid-2010s also dominated an era favouring batting.

Then there was Pakistan’s outstanding attack: Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis, with the spin of Abdul Qadir, another brilliant group who turned the old ball into lethal weapons capable of tearing through middle orders.

Like the great West Indian combinations of the late 20th century and the Australian attack of the early 2000s, Cummins’ men thrive on discipline.

Hazlewood mirrors McGrath’s relentless probing line; Cummins attacks the stumps with fuller lengths; Starc provides the left-arm angle, swing, and X-factor pace; Lyon provides the control and sustained pressure of an elite spinner.

While the historic West Indian pace battery holds the crown for sheer terror, and the 2000s Australian attack for ultimate match-winning balance, this crop matches them in longevity, relentless line and length and the ability to consistently grind down opponents through partnership bowling.

In Kingsmead, batsman Matt Renshaw set the tone for Australia in the first innings with support from Cummins and Lyon. The desperation to post as high a score as possible from 6-124 on a challenging wicket was obvious.

On his return to Test cricket, Nic Maddinson looked so desperate not to get out in the first innings that he made scoring look impossible. He soaked up much of the strike, and his dismissal was almost a relief to him.

Marnus Labuschagne looked more intent on scoring, and his resulting footwork was crisper. We may yet see the real Labuschagne by the end of the series. The real Steve Smith, meanwhile, is never far away. His dismissal soon after lunch on the first day, though, surprised everyone.

South Africa didn’t bowl badly, but they didn’t bowl enough good balls in clumps to put pressure on the middle order on a wicket that was offering bounce. South Africa’s spinners were disappointing. They didn’t bowl a line or length suited to the conditions, so the Australians scored easily.