10 Greatest Bowling Performances of All Time in a Test Series

#7 Terry Alderman: 41 wickets at 17.37 vs England (1989)

Terry Alderman was always at his best in England

Terry Alderman had a strange career. Possibly the last genuine swing bowler Australia produced, Alderman took 100 of his 170 Test wickets against England. Furthermore, 83 of those wickets were taken in England despite Alderman only touring there twice.

The first of those visits was in 1981, when Alderman took 42 wickets at 21.26 despite Australia sliding to defeat.

However, over the following eight years, much changed for Alderman and Australian cricket. Australia saw the likes of Dennis Lillee, who took 39 wickets himself during the 1981 Ashes, Greg Chappell, Rod Marsh and Jeff Thomson retire, leaving holes in the side that were not filled for some time. The 1980s was a great decade for entertaining cricket, but it was also one of Australia's poorest decades.

Alderman should have been one of the players to fill the void left by these greats, but injuries meant he was rarely available to play and when he was, he was seldom at his best. Between the 1981 and 1989 Ashes, Alderman didn't take 10 wickets in a series once. His 1981 Ashes seemed like a fluke, a blend of the right elements that had enabled a young bowler to shine in the the company of better players.

In 1989, Alderman was therefore looked at as a mediocre bowling option in a poor Australian side. In fact, before the series commenced, the 1989 Australian Ashes squad was dubbed the worst Australian side to tour England.

But in England Alderman found swing, and lots of it. From the first Test in Headingly to the last one at Kennington Oval, Alderman was magic. Over the course of six games he erased all the hurt that had been felt from years of injuries and unfulfilled potential, and replaced it with a deluge of wickets.

Australia won 4-0. Had it not been for rain, it might have been 6-0 and Alderman's wicket tally might have been closer to 50.

England used 29 players in the series, none of whom would be around when England won their next Ashes. When England finally did, in 2005, it was once again won due to swing bowling, an art that Alderman at his peak had mastered as well as any.