Australia’s fiery Mitchell Johnson awarded with Tendulkar and co

AUSTRALIA’S MITCHELL JOHNSON has been awarded top honours in One Day International (ODI) bowling at the ESPNcricinfo Awards 2011, which celebrate the best individual performances in the past year by batsmen and bowlers in Tests and one-day internationals.

Johnson won the award for best ODI Bowling for his performance against Sri Lanka in the first ODI in Pallekele in August 2011. Johnson produced the fourth-best figures in Australia’s one-day history to set his team on the path to a seven-wicket victory over Sri Lanka. It was taken for granted that spin would be the dominant force – so much so that Johnson was only the sixth bowler Michael Clarke turned to after losing the toss. Johnson struck with his third delivery, and ran through the middle order to finish with 6 for 31 – figures surpassed for Australia only by Glenn McGrath, Andy Bichel and Gary Gilmour.

Established in 2007, this year’s ESPNcricinfo Awards were voted on by a jury of cricket greats and experts, which included Ian Chappell (former Australia captain), Sanjay Manjrekar (former India batsman), Geoffrey Boycott (Former England opener), Ramiz Raja (Former Pakistan cricketer) and Russel Arnold (Former Sri Lanka allrounder).

Chappell said this particular devastating display by Johnson showed what the Aussie fast bowler is capable of.

“With Mitchell Johnson, it seems to be all or nothing when he’s bowling. He’s either very, very good, or very, very bad. On this day at Pallekele, he destroyed Sri Lanka with some magnificent bowling. This was the day when Mitchell Johnson was really on. He had the ball swinging into the right-handers, which is when he’s at his best. He was also fiery, bowling at good pace, and as we all know, he can get the odd ball to lift off a pretty good length and cause the best of batsmen problems. He came into the attack bowling well down the order. He was used late but boy was he successful. Ten overs, one maiden, 6 for 31. He destroyed Sri Lanka after they’d made a good start.”

The other winners were India’s Sachin Tendulkar, winning the best individual Test Batting performance for his 146 against South Africa in the Third Test in Cape Town. Ireland’s Kevin O’Brien claimed the best individual ODI Batting performance for his 113 against England at last year’s ICC World Cup in Bangalore. And Doug Bracewell from New Zealand was awarded best individual Test Bowling performance for his 6 for 40 against Australia in the Second Test in Hobart.

Will Mitch make it back into the Australian cricket team? Comment below: