There was a time when the trio of Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, and Shane Bond wreaked havoc in world cricket with their threatening pace. Brett Lee spearheaded the Australian pace attack for a long period delivering some intimidating spells. He has 310 wickets in his illustrious test career.
Let’s take a look at the top 3 bowling spells in Test Cricket by Brett Lee:
1. 5/30 vs West Indies, 2005
Brett Lee bowled the best spell of his test career against West Indies in Brisbane. In the first test match of the 2005 series between Australia and West Indies, he bowled at his best forcing the West Indies batting lineup to surrender. After a poor display with the bat in the first innings West Indies was chasing a mammoth target of 509 runs in the second innings. Brett Lee added to their misery with his masterclass. He dismissed the likes of Devon Smith, Ramnaresh Sarwan, and Denesh Ramdin to put the chase in jeopardy. Later he packed up the West Indies batting order by sending the lower order back, capping off his 5-wicket haul. Australia won the match comfortably by 379 runs.
2. 5/47 vs India, 1999
Brett Lee sent a statement to the cricket world that he was here to stay, in his very first test match. He made his debut against India on Boxing Day at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. In the first innings, along with Glenn McGrath, he troubled the Indian batting order restricting them to 238 runs which allowed Australia to take a healthy lead.
Brett Lee got two scalps in the top order by dismissing Sadagoppan Ramesh and Rahul Dravid. Later in the innings, he played a major role in wrapping up India with three wickets in the lower order. Australia went on to clinch the Boxing Day test by a huge margin.
3. 5/59 vs West Indies, 2008
Another brilliant bowling display from Brett Lee came against the West Indies but this time in the Caribbean. Lee took this 5-fer in Antigua against a formidable West Indian batting order. He troubled the middle order with his fireballs. Lee bagged some key wickets including Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, and Daren Sammy restricting West Indies to 352 runs in the first innings. The match eventually ended in a draw but Brett Lee would never forget his best spell in the Caribbean.
Also read: Ranking Haris Rauf’s top 3 ODI spells