ESPNcricinfo Awards 2015 Test bowling nominees: Broad's shock and Ashwin's guile

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James Anderson
4 for 43 v West Indies
second Test, St George's
With only the final day to go, the second Test seemed on course for a draw. West Indies were a comfortable 202 for 2 in their second innings, leading by 37, with Kraigg Brathwaite on an unbeaten hundred. For England, the second new ball held the key to forcing a win. Enter the canniest user of the new ball in world cricket: Anderson. Brathwaite fended a perfectly directed bouncer to gully, and a more traditional Anderson length and line soon found the edges of Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Marlon Samuels. West Indies had slipped to 239 for 5, and it did not take long for that to become 307 all out, paving the way for a nine-wicket England win.

Yasir Shah
7 for 76 v Sri Lanka
first Test, Galle
A year previously, Pakistan had come to Sri Lanka and lost 2-0, competing for long swathes of both Tests before falling apart at critical junctures. Now, in the first Test of another Sri Lankan tour, they turnaround began as Sarfraz Ahmed and Asad Shafiq got Pakistan a 117-run lead after they had been 96 for 5 in response to Sri Lanka's 300. But only a day and two overs remained when Yasir switched to bowling around the wicket to Kumar Sangakkara, with Sri Lanka 63 for 1. The ball spun sharply into Sangakkara and leapt as he stretched out, forcing a prod to short leg. First delivery the next morning, nightwatchman Dilruwan Perera shouldered arms to a straighter one, and the game was wide open. Yasir grabbed five more wickets as the hosts tumbled to 206 all out, leaving Pakistan only 90 to chase.

Steven Finn
6 for 79 v Australia
third Test, Birmingham
Finn hadn't played a Test for two years, and had flown home from Australia a year and a half before, entirely bereft of confidence and deemed "not selectable". Now the Ashes scoreline was 1-1 after two Tests. Momentum was the one quantity this series lacked, but Australia were seen to possess it going from Lord's to Edgbaston. It took less than 12 overs for it to shift, however, as the returning Finn - bowling action adjusted to eradicate the threat of kicking the stumps in his delivery stride - reduced them to 34 for 3, nicking off Steven Smith and clean-bowling Michael Clarke. They were the two most important Australian wickets, as they tumbled to 136 all out, but also the only two Finn would get in the first innings. The second brought quantity to go with quality: six Australian batsmen, including Smith and Clarke once again, were short of answers to his hostility and extra bounce from just back of a length.

Stuart Broad
8 for 15 v Australia
fourth Test, Nottingham
The perfect display of seam bowling. Time after time, Broad landed the ball exactly where he wanted to, whether spearing it in from around the wicket to Chris Rogers or banging it in on a fifth-stump line to the shuffling Steven Smith. Time after time, he got it to move just enough. On a freakish Trent Bridge morning, Broad didn't beat a batsman's edge until the first ball of his eighth over, when Josh Hazlewood swung and missed with a wild yahoo. By then, Broad had picked up seven wickets in seven overs, all of them nicked to a massed cordon of slip fielders. It was all so unreal, so surreal, that Broad gaped in disbelief, hands covering his face, when Ben Stokes threw himself full-length to his right to pluck Adam Voges out at fifth slip. Say what you will about the pitch, or about the leaden-footed, hard-handed Australian batting, some of Broad's bowling that morning was truly unplayable. Till then, he had bowled admirably through the series without the wickets to show for it. Now he had eight for less than two runs apiece as Australia tumbled to 60 all out.

Rangana Herath
7 for 48 v India
first Test, Galle
In their last home Test before this one, Sri Lanka had looked toothless with the ball while letting Pakistan chase down 377. They had left out Herath for that game, who, though still accurate and parsimonious, was looking less threatening, with recurring knee problems possibly causing him to put less of his body into his action. But now, back in the side, his competitive instincts responded to the efforts of Dinesh Chandimal, whose thrill-a-minute unbeaten 162 had overturned a first-innings deficit of 192 and helped set India a target of 176. It was a small score to get, but Herath was giving the ball a rip and attacking the stumps. It intensified the potential ramifications of every mistake India's batsmen made. And the more mistakes they made, the more unavoidable they seemed. Case in point, Rohit Sharma: having watched Herath get his first two wickets with arm balls that slid past the inside edge, he kept his front pad studiously out of the way; Herath dangled one slower, landed it marginally shorter, got him to reach for the ball, and spun it past his outside edge to hit off stump.

R Ashwin
5 for 42 v Sri Lanka
second Test, Colombo (PSO)
The Test match seesawed for the first two and a half days before India pulled away, their bowlers earning an 87-run first-innings lead that Ajinkya Rahane and M Vijay built on to set Sri Lanka 413 to win in three and a half sessions. India were on top, but doubt lingered over the timing of their declaration. New ball in hand, Ashwin put it to rest, picking up two wickets in his first five overs to leave Sri Lanka 33 for 2. The first wicket, of Kaushal Silva, came off a full toss, but the second was all about craft and guile. Ashwin had dismissed Kumar Sangakkara three times out of three already, for scores of 5, 40 and 32. Now, playing his final Test innings, Sangakkara came out in a positive mood, striking three fours while moving to 18 off 17 balls. Ashwin dangled an offbreak at him, slower than usual. Sangakkara reached with his hands and nicked to gully. Starting the final day 72 for 2, Sri Lanka still had a chance of saving the Test, but they imploded dramatically, losing their last wicket seven balls after lunch. Ashwin, tormenting the left-handers with his drift, dip and swinging arm ball, had taken three more wickets to pick up his 12th five-for in Tests.

Adil Rashid
5 for 64 v Pakistan
first Test, Abu Dhabi
When the final day began, England were still playing their first innings. When it ended, they were a mere 25 runs from the unlikeliest of victories. Eighteen wickets fell over the course of the first four days, for the cost of 1197 runs. A further 16 fell on a frenzied fifth day as the second act of Rashid's bizarre debut unfolded. In the first innings, he had bowled 34 largely pressure-free overs, conceded 163 runs, and picked up no wickets. But a legspinner only needs to land a few right, particularly on a last-day surface showing a few signs of wear, for his threat to multiply. And so Rashid did, after a couple of early blows from James Anderson. Younis Khan seemed to have calmed Pakistan's nerves in the company of his old mate Misbah-ul-Haq, but a wild swipe gave Rashid his first Test wicket. Then his second, with sharp spin finding the edge of a nervous poke from Asad Shafiq. Rashid picked up three more, all to edges caught in the slips, as a panicky Pakistan lost their last five wickets for 14 runs. England only needed 99, but bad light meant they could faced no more than 11 overs of their allotted 19.

Wahab Riaz
4 for 66 v England
second Test, Dubai
Having survived the crazy closing chapter of the otherwise somnolent Abu Dhabi Test, Pakistan came to Dubai where the surface offered a little more help to the bowlers. They batted first and a century from Misbah-ul-Haq steered them to 378, a total that seemed insufficiently large, as Alastair Cook, Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow moved England to 182 for 3 at stumps on the second day. Test matches on dry Asian pitches can turn quickly, however, and Wahab got the old ball to swerve and dip dangerously on the third morning. Root went poking at a full-length ball slanted across him, Ben Stokes jabbed at one that left him in the corridor, and Jos Buttler, struggling for form, had little answer to a round-the-wicket ball that reversed late, away from him. Three wickets in just over six overs and Wahab had sent England stumbling from 206 for 3 to 216 for 6. Pakistan secured a 136-run lead, and eventually, after a mighty final-innings struggle, a 178-run win.

Josh Hazlewood
6 for 70 v New Zealand
third Test, Adelaide
The first day-night Test. A thick cover of grass, left on the pitch to preserve the pink ball, had contributed to two low first-innings scores. New Zealand, shot out for 202, responded in kind to bowl Australia out for 224. Plenty of time remained in a match that was now wide open. Hazlewood, an old head on 24-year-old shoulders, while only playing his 12th Test, was just the bowler to swing it back Australia's way, chipping away at the New Zealand top order with his relentless control. Given Mitchell Starc was unable to bowl with a stress fracture in his foot, Hazlewood took extra responsibility, bowling close to 40% of the 62.5 overs as Australia shot New Zealand out for 208. Four of Hazlewood's six wickets came off edges to the keeper or the slip cordon, but the pick of them was an lbw: having moved Ross Taylor across his crease with a series of back-of-a-length balls in the corridor, Hazlewood pinned him in front with a full ball slanting wickedly into his stumps, catching him off-balance.

Ravindra Jadeja
5 for 21 v South Africa
first Test, Mohali
If you needed one image to sum up South Africa's wretched India tour of 2015, you'd always go back to this one: Hashim Amla, shouldering arms, bowled middle stump by Jadeja, thinking about square turn while facing a straight ball. It takes some skill to bowl straight on turning pitches, with no apparent change in action from the one that rips across the face of the bat, and Jadeja does it better than anyone else.

Jadeja was returning after a long spell out of India's side in all formats. He had looked a diminished bowler after his shoulder surgery, lacking the accuracy and bite of old, and was dropped and sent back to domestic cricket. Thirty-seven wickets in three Ranji Trophy matches suggested he was back to something near his best, but it took the evidence of a Test match, albeit in helpful conditions, to prove it. The Mohali Test had remained more or less neck-to-neck until its final innings, when South Africa, chasing 218, were bowled out for 109. Jadeja didn't just run through South Africa's innings, he left their psychological fears exposed for India to exploit over the rest of the series. Three of his five wickets came off balls that didn't turn, and a fourth came off one that only straightened marginally.

R Ashwin
5 for 61 v South Africa
fourth Test, Delhi
Ashwin picked up 31 wickets in the four Tests against South Africa, including four five-wicket hauls - the best of which came in the final innings of the series in Delhi, in the face of a magnificently resolute South African blocking effort. Until then, Ashwin's craft had not been fully tested either by the conditions or the opposition's batsmen. Now, it wasn't just his skill under question, but also his physical and mental stamina. He responded magnificently, bowling 49.1 overs on a surface that had slowed down considerably over the course of the match. The quest for wickets brought out all his variety, including a perfectly pitched legbreak that took AB de Villiers' edge and flew wide of gully, but it was the drifting, dipping offbreak that did the most damage, starting with the wickets of the two opening batsmen. In the end Ashwin achieved a cathartic victory over de Villiers as well, getting one to lift steeply off the surface in the final session to produce a catch at leg slip.

Dushmantha Chameera
5 for 47 v New Zealand
second Test, Hamilton
The pitch at Seddon Park was covered in a thick mat of green, and Sri Lanka's coach Jerome Jayaratne called it "understandably doctored", but bounce rather than extravagant seam movement proved its defining quality. Bowled out for 292 despite some positive batting on the first day, Sri Lanka needed someone to exploit the bounce. Answering that call was Chameera, tall, spindly, fast, and all of 23, playing only his fourth Test. New Zealand seemed to be running away with it at 81 for no loss when he struck his first blow, getting Tom Latham caught at leg gully. Then he banged it into Kane Williamson and got him miscuing a pull. Martin Guptill fell to a reckless shot at the other end before Chameera struck again, with another well-directed short ball, forcing Ross Taylor to fend to the keeper. Eighty-one for no loss had become 89 for 4, and Sri Lanka eventually took a 55-run first-innings lead. Their batsmen threw the advantage away in the second innings, but Chameera kept them in the game still, bouncing out four New Zealand batsmen even as Williamson piloted them home with a serene unbeaten hundred.

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