Ashes Match-ups 1: A tale of two seamers

He was the best of bowlers, he was the worst of bowlers.  Actually both the Aussies and the English have a bowler like this.  And this series might depend on which one of these does better in this series.  Mitchell Johnson and Stuart Broad can both be their teams most destructive bowler on their good days.  They can also leak runs at a rapid rate on their bad days.  They are both confidence bowlers who are hard to stop when they are on a role, however they usually need an early breakthrough to lift their confidence.  The opposition supporters like giving them both heaps.  They are also handy with the bat.

Of course there are differences.  Broad has a higher natural level of confidence, which might explain why he seems to have more good days that Johnson.  Johnson can get very down on himself very quickly, which may be why his worst is worse than Broad's. However his best is better than Broad's as anyone who has seen him in full flight at the WACA can attest.  Broad has shown a more consistent level of fight than Johnson over the years.  Johnson at his best is more brutal (ask Graeme Smith).  

Overall it is hard to pick from their Ashes record.  This is Broad's 13th match against Australia, and he has 50 wickets (3.84 per match) at an average of 28.9.  Johnson is only in his 10th match and has 40 wickets as at the start of day 4 (4 wickets a match so far) at 31.82.  His higher average is offset a bit by his better strike rate (48.1 to 53.9).  Even with the bat, Johnson has 330 at 23.57 and Broad 445 at 26.17, though Johnson leads the 50s count 4 to 3.  In this match, Broad has out bowled. Johnson so far, but not by much.  Johnson has out batted Broad, but Broad has another chance.  Strangely these two match winners have virtually cancelled each other out to this point.  It is the rest of the team that has made the difference.  However, I suspect that the relative performances of these two might just decide the series.