Frank Tyson, who has died aged 85, probably bowled as fast a ball as any cricketer who has ever played, and inevitably he attracted the nickname “Typhoon”. His domination at international level was fleeting, with one Test series for England memorable for his performance alone: in Australia in 1954-55. To him and to all who marvelled at his pace in that Ashes encounter, that spectacle was worth much more than any long workaday career. When Tyson returned to Australia four years later, the phenomenal edge of speed had gone and he was just an average quick bowler, to be remembered as the balding, muscular academic who had spearheaded Len Hutton’s dramatic retention of the Ashes following England’s ominous thrashing in the opening Test match at Brisbane (Tyson 1 for 160).

Tyson was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, and educated at Queen Elizabeth’s grammar school, Middleton, before taking an English literature degree at Durham University. He followed a fellow Lancastrian, Keith Andrew, a high-class wicketkeeper, down to Northamptonshire, and made his debut in 1952. Tyson’s first headline came when the county hosted the 1953 Australian touring team. On that bland pitch, he bruised flesh and battered gloves. Word spread fast that here was something out of the ordinary. The following year brought his Test debut, when a complacent England suffered an unexpected defeat by Pakistan at the Oval, Tyson taking four top-order wickets in a low-scoring match. Soon he and Andrew were on the ship to Australia.

The turnaround of that 1954-55 series came at Sydney in the second Test. A thoughtful man, Tyson had equipped himself with robust boots modelled on those worn by the prewar tearaway Harold Larwood, and he accepted advice to shorten his absurdly lengthy run-up. England’s famous triumph came after Tyson, batting at No 7, had been knocked unconscious by a bouncer from Ray Lindwall on the opening day, payback for some short stuff Tyson had flung at Australia’s fast-bowling ace in the preceding Test. Shocked at the sight of the prone figure of Tyson, a large bump on the back of his skull, spectators could scarcely believe it next day when he bowled like lightning to take four wickets, then added six more in the second innings. With Brian Statham operating valiantly into the breeze, the Lancastrian pair sealed a 38-run victory on the fifth day. Some of the Australian batsmen had shown unmistakable signs of fear.

In the next Test, at Melbourne, Tyson was even more frightening, taking 7 for 27 on an untrustworthy pitch that had been illegally watered overnight. This second victory was followed by another at Adelaide that secured the Ashes for England and a kind of immortality for Tyson.

He played only another 11 Tests, finishing with 76 wickets at 18.56 in his 17 matches for England, of which only four were on his native soil. He knew that the physical strain of that “glad animal action”, as he called it, would tell against him. A somewhat serious man of some depth and wide interests, he was left with few regrets. With a career in teaching to pursue, having settled in Australia and married Ursula Miels, from Melbourne, he taught at Carey grammar school in that city, did some television commentary (with precise delivery, in the Rex Alston mould) for ABC and later Channel 9, and wrote extensively, including several books (one a history of Richmond Cricket Club, Victoria). He coached for the Victorian Cricket Association and also in India. Eventually he and Ursula and their family moved to Gold Coast, Queensland, where Tyson was able to share drinks with his old adversaries Bill Johnston and Ron Archer, coach the local club and take up oil painting as his glory days faded into history.

He retained fond memories of county cricket, of the years when lowly Northants fielded the lethal bowling pair of Tyson the tearaway and the Australian left-arm spin wizard George Tribe. In 161 Championship matches for the county from 1953 to 1960, Tyson took 509 wickets at 20.53, with best figures of 8 for 60 against Surrey at the Oval in 1957, which was his most productive summer (101 wickets at 21.47). In his 244 first-class matches, he took 767 wickets at 20.89. No precise record was kept of the number of batsmen’s fingers and ribs he broke. His average with the bat was 17.09, with a highest score of 82 against Sussex at Hove in 1960, a fortnight before the end of his explosive eight-year career.

Before Tyson, England produced bowlers of extreme and frightening pace in Charles Kortright in the late 1890s (although he played no tests) and Larwood. But there has been none since him.

Tyson wrote with an earnest style. In 2004, bolstered by his scrapbooks, he produced a fascinating retrospective of the 1954-55 tour (In the Eye of the Typhoon), while his 1961 autobiography, A Typhoon Called Tyson, stands out for quality of composition and expression. It closes with the following: “What power there is in bowling fast! What a sensation of omnipotence, and how great the gulf between this sublime sensation and ordinary, mundane everyday existence!”

He and Ursula had one son, Philip, two daughters, Anna and Sara, and eight grandchildren.

• Frank Holmes Tyson, cricketer, born 6 June 1930; died 27 September 2015