The most lowly thought of players with truly gun performances.

[mr_mister]

Match winning spell of 6/42 on a flat Adelaide deck to bowl out arguably the best batting lineup ever for less than 200.

At one point do you admit he had talent

 

[srbhkshk]

Agarkar was not a lowly player, he just had extreme ups and downs with the downs being more frequent.

 

[S.Kennedy]

England during the '90s had a lot of these performers.

 

[Burgey]

Peter Such taking 6 fer in the first Ashes test of the 1993 series.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I suppose the most obvious examples, at least from Ashes' history, are people like Bob Massie (16 at Lord's, 1972) and David Steele in 1975.

 

[Bahseph]

I know Darren Sammy took a seven wicket haul but his fiver in the Windies win against Pakistan in about 2012/2013 is pretty remarkable considering how average his bowling was over his career.

Andrew Hall scoring that big ton in India. Especially since he finished with a mid 20 average as a batter.

 

[Athlai]

Johnson produced some of the greatest spells of any bowler ever IMO, overall was only really a "good" Test bowler instead of a great though.

 

[srbhkshk]

Jason Holder did really well in the third test in UAE.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Although undeniably a great batsman, Allan Robert Border's SLA was, if not quite a load of tripe, then slightly flattered by being described as "serviceable".

In 156 tests he took 39 scalps in total. More impressively though 11 of them came in this test against a peak Windies featuring Messrs Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Richardson, Dujon et al.

 

[Immenso]

First one which spring to mind was Agarker at Adelaide.

Then tried to think of an NZ example, came up with Fulton's twin hundreds in Auckland in NZ almost win in V England.

But when read the OP became confused, as Atherton is not a lowly thought of player at all.

 

[S.Kennedy]

If you are bringing in part timers, there is plenty of examples there. Didn't Vaughan take Tendulkar's wicket?

 

[Shri]

Mickey Clarke 6/9

 

[Burgey]

Although undeniably a great batsman, Allan Robert Border's SLA was, if not quite a load of tripe, then slightly flattered by being described as "serviceable".

In 156 tests he took 39 scalps in total. More impressively though 11 of them came in this test against a peak Windies featuring Messrs Greenidge, Haynes, Richards, Richardson, Dujon et al.

How. Dare. You.

 

[pardus]

Ravi Shastri's 107 on a fast pitch in Barbados in the second Test match in the 1989 series against the West Indies facing an attack of Marshall, Ambrose, Walsh & Ian Bishop.
It was a very brave knock. He survived several blows on the body (one of those blows involved the famous sledging incident with Dessie Haynes - when Shastri was hit in the box by a lethal Marshall delivery).

This was Shastri's second century against the Windies pace attack in the 80s.
The earlier one was in Antigua in 1983 against an attack of Marshall, Holding, Roberts and Winston Davis.

 

[fredfertang]

Willie Watson's famous knock in this match

Averaged 25 in his Test career and only got one other century - the innings saved the match against what I'm sure we can all agree was a pretty useful attack - Miller, Lindwall, Johnston, Benaud and Davidson

 

[AndrewB]

Devon Malcolm's 9/57 against South Africa would qualify.

As a sort of inverse of this thread (i.e. a highly regarded player with a miserable performance), Allan Donald's figures in the second innings of that Test were 12-1-96-1.

 

[The Battlers Prince]

Tino Best scoring 95 was shooting above his weight against England. The match was basically washed out so not much pressure on him but he only ever scored 2 50's in any pro cricket. Love his enthusiasm for the game though

 

[wpdavid]

Alex Tudor's 99* to win the first test against new Zealand in 1999, after the first three innings of the match had been low scores.

Nick Cook's first couple of tests at home to NZ in 1983 - took loads of wickets for hardly any but barely took a wicket afterwards, apart from one occasion in the 4th innings on a turner in Pakistan.

Richard Ellison in the last two Ashes tests in 1985 of course.

 

[S.Kennedy]

I saw Tino Best for Hants wacked for consecutive boundaries by Keaton Jennings last season. He, ehh, had some colourful language when he returned to the outfield, which went something like, ''the fackin'' cant''.

 

[Zinzan]

Peter Fulton centuries in each innings vs England 3rd Test: New Zealand v England at Auckland, Mar 22-26, 2013 | Cricket Scorecard | ESPN Cricinfo