"I Hope Kids Want To Bowl Like Me"

To say Mitchell Johnson was brutal would be like saying Renoir's "Bal du moulin de la Galette" is a pretty painting: it would be accurate but it would be entirely missing the point.

Of course, Graeme Smith and Faff du Plessis would readily agree with an estimate of his brutality but these days, Johnson has so much more of both light and shade in his cricket, let alone his bowling.

He uses the short ball sparingly but like Jeffrey Robert Thomson, his more dangerous delivery is the one which rises from a length where even the best of batsmen might expect it behave as though it was on a length. Throughout the summer, his pace has been sustained throughout the shorter spells bowling coach Craig McDermott has called for. Even last night, with South Africa on their knees at 3-23, Johnson had a break after his first four overs. Despite Thommo posturing like any old fast bowler, Johnson is regularly in the lightning quick range above 150km/hr. du Plessis coped a riser at 151 and did well to get something in front of his face.

Batting against the threat of pain and injury is what intimidation is all about. There have been others who were faster - Brett Lee and the spear chucker Thomson for instance - but none have been more dangerous since Bradman, save perhaps for Frank Tyson for a couple of years in the 1950's. Whether left or right hander, the rising ball from Johnson comes at you.

Bowling to Smith, Johnson's plan was to get Smith onto the back foot when he would want to be coming forward. To remind him of two broken hands. To torment his mind as much as his body. The second part of the plan would have been bowling from wide of the crease, left arm over and aiming to be full and at Smith infamous inside edge. It didn't get that far yesterday.

There will be some that will say du Plessis failed to fill Jacques Kallis shoes but in recent years, those shoes have been leaden and not moving with the same assurance. Kallis had made runs but often from memory, underlying his class and the difference between him and Ponting. As Ponting aged, even memory wasn't enough at Test level. Make no mistake, the same mongrel ball which cleaned up du Plessis, would have done the same to Kallis ... would have done the same to anyone.

The problem in this world dominated by highlight package thinking driven by 30 second media grabs, is that we come to believe this is all Johnson has got. It was once, but he snared Alviro Petersen with a ball designed tempt and the batsmen, fresh from watching his skipper at the other end and with lacquer still drying on his own shirt, slashed in relief, determined to get some of his own back and edged instead to Haddin. Think back to the eighties and the West Indies barber shock quartet. How many times did batsmen dodge and weave and then get out to a dreadful shot at a ball to hit? Scare 'em and fool 'em. Likewise, Ryan McClaren was blasted out with full, fast ball angled in from outside his left handed off stump.

Intimidation is more than bowling fast and its certainly not just bowling short. Every bloke with a new cherry has done. Intimidation is all about doubt. Its was said that Thommo didn't know where he was going to bowl so the batsman had no chance. For Johnson it is vastly different and infinitely superior. Post injuries, in the rebuild of body and mind, Johnson has gained and mastered control. He knows exactly where he is going to bowl. Thommo's speed advantage - allegedly having ten more kms in the tank - is overtaken my Johnson's mental advantage. Bowling left hand over doesn't hurt either. Batsmen are waiting on the ball into the ribs or at the grill; waiting on the loose one to hit; and never expecting a ball in their half. They never know what's coming. They are never sure.

But Johnson is. Shane Warne was.

That's intimidation.

"I hope kids are watching and want to bowl like me" Johnson said recently. Most cricket tragics would agree, because the game has never been stronger, never placed the spectator on the edge of his/her seat, than when bowlers intimidate and batsmen have to find a solution.

Only the very best in the world, armed with the right plan can tame him. AB de Villiers is the best in the world and his plan - the right plan - is to stay back, play late and blot out what might be coming, replacing it with what is coming. Ball by ball yesterday, he played each individual ball, making judgments of length and trajectory in the partial second Johnson allowed and waited. His fifty was his 11th consecutive Test where he has scored fifty or more: a record equaled and held by Viv Richards and similar ilk. He will soon be South African captain and his leadership brain is no less than his batting one. Like Steve Smith, he has learned on the job, every minute at the crease teaching him new things, fine honing old tricks. If the term "class act" isn't yet worn out in the cliche overdriven world, then write it beside him in indian ink, the indelible stuff, because you won't need to remove it.

Earlier in the day, Smith added a fourth hundred in six months. What a slap across the face he has been for the experts who said he didn't have a batting technique for Test cricket. His driving on both sides of the wicket was superb in his 233 run stand with another of the reinvented, Shaun Marsh. Where Marsh had some luck - most hundreds do - Smith was superb. There are some who might say he still plays dumb shots to get out but if we all removed the dumb from our repertoire, it would be a game of Geoffrey Boycotts.

Australia collapsed at the start and end of its innings with nine partnerships totally less than 180, a fact to sober those clapping each other on the back. Dale Steyn isn't yet fit ... a further sobering thought. Warner was Warner, Rogers played a rare bad shot and Alex Doolan looked very good before he mistimed a pull shot. The man with the question mark is Michael Clarke. Since Adelaide, his eight innings haven't gone beyond 25. Its hard to know who this is more worrying for, him or the South African bowlers.

Where all this leaves Watson is anyone's guess.