Now the lanky paceman has produced a fine spell that ripped through the Australian top order and yielded figures of five for 45 to reduce the tourists to also-rans in the third Ashes Test in Birmingham.
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“They have got two outstanding left-arm bowlers, they’ve got some great batters, and we’ll do well but it’ll be great to see”.
Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon finished with three wickets apiece, while Johnson and Mitchell Starc ended with two each.
“It’s been a while since I played Test cricket so to to get a five-for on my game back feels fantastic”.
But there was a major injury worry for England after James Anderson was forced off with a suspected torn muscle in his side. He had scored his 2,000th run on Day One en route to scoring 3, and completed his 300th wicket when he had Bairstow out caught behind. Finn, returning to Test after two long years, notched up a five-wicket haul on Thursday to rattle the Aussie batting lineup in their second innings.
After two compelling bowling displays by England, which reduced Australia to a 23-run lead, Anderson’s omission from the fourth Test will come as a severe blow to the hosts, who have bounced back from a crushing defeat in the second Test at Lord’s.
England have taken a 2-1 lead in the Ashes series after beating Australia by eight wickets at Edgbaston.
But whereas that clash had taken place on a largely placid pitch, the course of this Test owed much to Australia captain Michael Clarke’s decision to bat first on a seaming surface offering sideways movement.
It unravelled spectacularly when Finn dismissed Smith for the second time in the match, a sloppy pull shot resulting in a skied edge that landed straight in the lap of keeper Jos Buttler.
He immediately replaced Starc with Mitchell Johnson, but to no avail and eventually more merriment in the crowd at the expense of the Australian they prefer to mock most.
Earlier, Australia’s tail had wagged in the morning to frustrate England’s push for victory.
Mitchell Marsh saw off the hat-trick ball, allowing it to pass by off stump, but had made just six when his bails were sent flying by the towering Finn.
All the while Warner attacked but, trying to turn Anderson legside, the left-hand batsman ballooned a catch to Adam Lyth in the covers to end a 49-ball innings, including 10 fours.
Root took first advantage, before Moeen and Stuart Broad took over in a telling passage of play for an eighth-wicket stand of 87 either side of lunch.
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Anderson, England s all-time leading Test wicket-taker, left the field three balls into his ninth over in Australia s second innings on the second day at Edgbaston on Thursday – his 33rd birthday.
