 The 1950 – 51 Ashes series was Australia 's first home series in three years . In the opening match of the season for Victoria against the touring Englishmen , Johnston warmed up by scoring 30 and taking a total of 3 / 89 , including the wickets of leading batsmen Compton and Hutton . In the First Test at Brisbane , England were caught on a sticky wicket and Johnston took 5 / 35 , removing Reg Simpson , Washbrook , Evans , Compton and Arthur McIntyre , as England declared at 7 / 68 . He then took 2 / 30 in the second innings , removing Evans and Compton for a second time as Australia won the match to take a 1 – 0 lead . In the Second Test at the MCG , Johnston took 2 / 28 and 4 / 26 as Australia scraped home by 28 runs , defending a target of only 179 on a cracked pitch . Johnston had quiet Third Test with only a total of 1 / 82 in an innings victory , but he returned to form in the Fourth Test in Adelaide with 3 / 58 and 4 / 73 in a 274 @-@ run win . He did much of the heavy lifting in the second innings , removing the top four English batsmen , Hutton , Simpson , Washbrook and Compton . Johnston struggled in the final Test with match figures of 1 / 91 as England won their only Test of the series . Johnston led the wicket takers list , with 22 at 19 @.@ 18 , as Australia took a 4 – 1 series triumph . Johnston had saved his best performances for the Tests ; he managed only 19 wickets at 40 @.@ 37 in eight matches for Victoria during the season , and never took more than two wickets in an innings . He was particularly unsuccessful against New South Wales , taking a total of 3 / 190 in two matches . Overall , he took 41 wickets at 29 @.@ 00 for the season . 
