Johnson the all-round hero

Stats highlights from the first Test between South Africa and Australia in Johannesburg, which the visitors won by 162 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series

S Rajesh

02-Mar-2009

Stats highlights from the first Test between South Africa and Australia in Johannesburg, which the visitors won by 162 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series.

Mitchell Johnson shone with both bat and ball at the Wanderers © Getty Images

The star of the show with both bat and ball was Mitchell Johnson, who put in the kind of all-round performance that no Australian had managed in 20 years: the last player to score at least 90 and take eight wickets in a Test was Allan Border, way back in 1989 against West Indies in Sydney. That, though, was in a match that had lost some of its edge as West Indies had already sealed the series. To check out the previous instance when this feat was achieved by an Australian, you'll have to go back to 1960, when Alan Davidson scored 124 and took 11 wickets in that famous tied Test in Brisbane in 1960. Overall, only eight Australians have scored at least 90 and taken eight or more wickets in a Test.

Johnson has had plenty of success against most of the South African top order in the past, and he continued that in this Test, dismissing Graeme Smith, Jacques Kallis and JP Duminy for the fourth time in Tests. The only top-order batsmen he didn't nail in this Test -Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers - are the ones who have the best record against him.

South African batsmen versus Johnson
Batsman	Runs	Balls	Dismissals	Average	Runs per over
Jacques Kallis	49	149	4	12.25	1.97
Neil McKenzie	43	148	3	14.33	1.74
JP Duminy	73	175	4	18.25	2.50
Graeme Smith	113	137	4	28.25	4.94
AB de Villiers	80	172	1	80.00	2.79
Hashim Amla	84	153	1	84.00	3.29

South Africa's defeat at the Wanderers continued their indifferent run here: since 2000 they've won four Tests and lost five. Their victories have all been against the weaker teams - New Zealand (twice), West Indies and Sri Lanka, who have only recently become a tough unit overseas. On the other hand, they've lost to Australia (thrice), England and India. After this defeat, the win-loss ratio at this ground since their readmission has dropped to 1.14, which is much poorer than their records in Durban, Cape Town and Centurion.

For Australia, it was their fourth successive win here after their defeat in 1994.

The difference between the two teams has historically been quite significant in Tests played in South Africa (since 1991), and this match followed that pattern. Australia didn't convert their fifties into centuries like they normally do, but otherwise they were superior in all respects.

South Africa v Australia, in previous Tests in SA (from 1991), and in this one
Team	Runs per wkt	100s/ 50s	Runs per over
Australia (previous Tests)	36.67	13/ 26	3.25
South Africa (previous Tests)	27.36	4/ 29	2.80
Australia (this Test)	33.65	1/ 5	3.75
South Africa (this Test)	25.55	1/ 2	2.54

Jacques Kallis became the first South African to get 10,000 Test runs, and was pretty solid in both innings, but his disappointing run against Australia at the Wanderers continued: in eight innings, he has a highest score of 45 and an average of 24.

It was an excellent Test for Australia's debutants, with Marcus North scoring 122 and Phillip Hughes 75. The last time an Australian scored more runs in his debut Test was when Michael Clarke scored 168 in an outstanding debut in Bangalore in 2004.

Phillip Hughes Marcus North Mitchell Johnson Alan Davidson Jacques Kallis Australia South Africa South Africa vs Australia Australia tour of South Africa

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo