Wisden overview
Alternating between a sharp medium-pace and finger-spin, left-handed Bill Johnston was a fixture in Australian XIs for a decade after the war, until an incapacitating knee injury forced him from the game. Genial and avuncular, he nonetheless had a mean bouncer and a keen appetite for overs, harvesting 102 wickets at 16.8 on his first tour of England with Don Bradman's 1948 Invincibles, including 9 for 183 from 84 overs in the first Test at Trent Bridge. Historians tend to cast him as an auxiliary to Lindwall and Miller, but he was more reliable than either, and the four years he took to surpass 100 Test wickets was a record. His innings were notable mostly for their beaming brevity, but in January 1952 he held out long enough as last man to help Doug Ring (a team-mate at Melbourne's Richmond club) secure a famous one-wicket victory against West Indies at the MCG, and the following year in England finished atop Australia's tour averages after collecting 102 for only once out. Gideon Haigh

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