Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson - The deadly pair's reign of terror

“Lillee and Thomson were probably, as a pair, the fastest and most lethal opening pair in Australia’s history," Don Bradman on the bowling duo.

Mike Denness, the English captain in the 1974-75 Ashes series had said:

“As the plane left Australia for New Zealand, some of the lads said they were glad to get out alive. That was difficult to take. I was upset I hadn’t picked up on it earlier. They were thinking about their livelihoods, and whether they were going to get hit on the head. It was why helmets came in soon after.”

This can be taken as the words of any batter who faced the duo of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, and the English captain felt the same heat right after the 1974-75 Ashes series down under.

But their case has to be taken under consideration, a human torpedo and exterminator running at you at nearly 100 mph is a sight no batter would like to see. Especially when they like to bowl only to create a pool of blood on the pitch or to hit the batter on their ribs or legs.

Thomson, with his slingshot action, and Lillee with his esthetically pleasing action unleashed missiles into the gloves of the great Rodney Marsh. Marsh would indeed go on to keep in every test the two quicks played together.

A few days after the 1974-75 Ashes, he wrote in a piece for the Cricketer magazine, revealing that he felt the same pain as the batsman – and the same fatigue as the Umpires.

“Keeping to Jeff and Dennis, the two fastest bowlers I’ve ever seen, is a bruising job – literally. Every time ‘Two up’ (Thommo) or ‘FOT' (Lillee) has started his run, every time I’ve crouched in anticipation of another thunderbolt, I’ve wondered to myself if this will be a blow to put me out of the game”, he said.

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The stats - Lillee & Thomson

Dennis Lillee

"Ashes to Ashes.

Dust to dust,

If Lillee don’t get you,

Thommo must.”

This was the chant that the Australian crowd in attendance used to sing, whenever a team visited them, along with the usual “KILL! KILL!” chants. The deliberate intimidation from the duo was enough to make their opponents fear for their lives.

They bounced any and everyone to make the opposing players duck, weave, bob, and fall. They had some serious induction in their fast bowling, a terrifying thing to face.

Lillee and Thomson have combined for 217 wickets at an average of 27.2 and have taken 8.3 wickets per test match. During the famous 1974-75 Ashes series, they both took 58 wickets between them, which Australia won by 4-1, Thomson with 33, and Lillee with 25.

The legend of these two can’t be forgotten so easily, Simon Hughes in his article for The Cricketer magazine, claimed that Dennis Lillee was the one who discovered reverse swing and not the Pakistani fast bowlers.

In fact, it was Lillee who taught Imran Khan how to reverse swing the ball. Thomson, on the other hand, and, had the ability to extract bounce from any pitch.

A conversation between Ian Chappell and Lance Gibs during the South Australia versus West Indies game at the start of the 1975-6 tour, sums up the legend -

“You’ve got a job to do,” Gibs said. “I can handle Lille, he has a wife and kids, like me. But that mad man Thomson, you’ve got to tell him I can’t bat and he musn’t kill me.”

“But Gibsy,” Chappell said laughingly, “You’re forgetting that I’m not the captain anymore.”

“I don’t care,” Gibbs said, wagging his finger at Chappell. “I am holding you responsible for my safety.”

Legends in their own rights, Lillee and Thomson bowling era was correctly termed "The deadly pair's reign of terror".