'Were these highs or miracles?'

When asked today about his career highs and lows, Glenn McGrath reeled off a very specific, and diverse, list of moments. Cricinfo delved deeper into those key moments that made a career

A Test debut at that fast bowlers' haven, the WACA, and the start of a very fruitful acquaintance behind the stumps, although it hardly seemed it at the time. McGrath's maiden Test figures of 3 for 142 were not enough to keep him in the side for the second Test against New Zealand, although he did get off the mark when Mark Greatbatch nicked a chance through to Ian Healy to give Australia their first breakthrough of the game. Of the 395 dismissals that Healy made in his career, no one contributed more to that tally than McGrath, who delivered 58 of them.

This was the moment that, in McGrath's own words, gave him self-belief as a Test cricketer. After nine hit-and-miss appearances in the space of 17 months, he arrived in the Caribbean for a series that would change the world order. Up to this point he had just 25 Test wickets to his name but when Craig McDermott, Australia's spearhead, flew home before a ball had been bowled, necessity transformed him into a senior player. He responded to the burden by bouncing the West Indian pacemen, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh, at every opportunity. "The team plans were to give them a hard time," he recalled today. "The fact that I'm not that handy with the bat meant a lot of people thought it was a brave move. But I was just getting my retaliation in first." Australia won an epoch-making series 2-1, with McGrath finishing with 17 wickets at 21.70.

Has any bowler ever been better suited to the unique conditions at Australia's favourite home-from-home, Lord's? McGrath, with his height, accuracy and half-a-bat's-width seam movement, made the pavilion end his personal fiefdom on three consecutive Ashes tours from 1997 to 2005. Exploiting the Lord's slope to perfection, he took 26 wickets in those matches at 11.50 each, to ensure that Australia's unbeaten run at HQ would extend beyond 70 years. His own favourite moment, though, was his 8 for 38 on his first appearance in 1997. England were 1-0 up after a famous win at Edgbaston, and remained that way as rain came to their aid. But, in between whiles, McGrath bundled them out for 77, to shred any semblance of a psychological advantage. Australia duly won the next three Tests to take an unassailable lead in the series.

Another day, another rout, as Pakistan folded for 72 in their second innings. McGrath grabbed eight of the second-innings wickets to seal victory by the modest margin of 491 runs. This performance was, however, achieved at the venerable age of 34 and a season after his dodgy ankle had first given way - he had missed the whole of India's visit in 2003-04. Never one to fade into the background quietly, McGrath outdid his fellow Australian legends, Lillee and Thomson, to deliver the best figures by a fast bowler at the WACA.

"Were these highs or miracles?" McGrath asked rhetorically, as he recalled the favourite non-bowling moments in his career. His career-best 61 was a no-brainer - few tailenders have ever taken their game so seriously, or been taken so lightly by opposing bowlers, as career average of 7.45 would testify. But the day that McGrath and Jason Gillespie (54 not out) tormented the Kiwis with a tenth-wicket stand of 114 was a day that gave hope to non-batsmen the world over. Gillespie, of course, went on to even more eye-popping feats, but McGrath was content simply to win a bet with his old captain, Steve Waugh, who claimed he would never make even a first-class fifty.

McGrath's other favourite moment was a catch so stunning, it took the breath away from those privileged to witness it. Whether by accident or design, McGrath omitted to mention Michael Vaughan among his list of favourite foes, but their duel in 2002-03 was the contest of that Ashes summer. Vaughan shaded it with 633 runs, but McGrath finished a 4-1 series winner, and had this little snapshot to take home with him - a full-length sprint and dive on the midwicket boundary to intercept a top-edged slog-sweep. Replays showed that the ball bounced off his outstretched left palm and was grasped in his right, as he crashed and slid to earth. Vaughan was gone for 41, and England's last hope of salvation went with him. They lost their remaining five wickets for 45.

The seriousness with which McGrath approaches his batting doubtless stems from the memories of this traumatic experience. Australia needed just 118 to win the second Test against South Africa in January 1994, but they capitulated to the wily swing bowling of Fanie de Villiers, losing their first nine wickets for 110, including Damien Martyn to a shot that would send him into Test exile for the next seven years. And so the stage was set for young Glenn, in just his fifth Test. Eight to win, and the hopes of a nation on his shoulders. Alas, he survived just seven balls, before poking a return catch to de Villiers for 1. At the other end was Craig McDermott, unbeaten on 29, just 12 months after his failure to win the one-run defeat against West Indies at Adelaide.

This match rankled with Shane Warne as well. Australia could, and perhaps should, be eyeing up their fourth straight World Cup win when McGrath finally bows out in the Caribbean in April. Instead, they took their eyes off the ball when they came to play lowly Sri Lanka in a super-charged night in Pakistan, and were condemned to an emphatic seven-wicket defeat with more than three overs to spare, thanks to a brilliant century from Aravinda de Silva. McGrath's own figures were respectable - 8.2-1-28-0 - but the pain of defeat was tangible. Arguably, it is still spurring him on now.

That ball, Edgbaston 2005
The inevitable regret. "Treading on that ball, lying on the ground ... I couldn't reverse what had just happened." Nothing more needs to be said. It was the moment that has driven his - and his team's - bid for vengeance all series.