Glenn McGrath: Australia’s legendary bowler – What players of yesterday are remembered for today
One of the best cricketers Australian has ever produced, Glenn McGrath was one of the most feared bowlers of his time.
Born on the February 9, 1970, McGrath would go on to be one of the most respected bowlers of his generation.
Standing at a daunting 1.95 metres opposing batsmen had to deal with a combination of pace, as well as deliveries pitched at an immaculate and frighteningly consistent line and length. McGrath had this unnerving ability to pitch the ball exactly where he
wanted six deliveries an over, every over.
A testament to his consistency is the fact that the Australian bowler took 381 wickets in the One Day International format of the game, with his best bowling figures standing at an impressive seven wickets taken for just 15 runs.
Making his Test debut in 1993 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746’s main strike bowler and whenever he was fit and available would always be handed the responsibility by the captain to bowl the first over every time Australia took to the field.
His bowling prowess and imposing figure was likened to that of West Indies’ bowling legend, Curtly Ambrose on more than one occasion.
It seemed the Australian fast bowler would have been right at home in the West Indies’ legendary bowling attack, as he would go on to break the record of most wickets taken (519) in Test matches. A record which previously belonged to Ambrose’s bowling partner,
Courtney Walsh.
It seemed that McGrath preferred playing the long Test format of the game as he would play an astonishing 124 Test matches and take an even more incredible 563 Test match wickets, the record still stands to this very day.
Not enough praise can be heaped on McGrath’s achievements in Tests which is made clear when one looks at his best bowling figures of 10 wickets for 27 runs over two innings and even more so at his jaw dropping economy rate of just 2.49 runs per over.
McGrath made up the spine of Australian players along the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Adam-Gilchrist-c918 and Ricky Ponting who helped Australia to 13 years of cricketing dominance as they won the 1999, 2003 and 2007 World Cup tournaments in a record breaking run.
The Australian did have injury problems that had him in and out of the squad during the later years of his career.
McGrath bid farewell to Test match cricket in 2007 after leading the Australian side to a 5-0 trumping of bitter rivals, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 in the Ashes. Going out with a bang McGrath was declared Man of the Tournament as he bowed out of his last match for Australia
for the five day format of the game.
In the same year McGrath led Australia to their third successive World Cup victory before making his retirement from all formats of the game official.
McGrath was the role model for many bowlers and inspired the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Brett-Lee-c48419 and host of other players. His bowling captivated an entire generation of fans and gave nightmares to almost every batsman who found himself having to face the prolific bowler.
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