First published in the 2018 edition of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack, Andy Zaltzman picks out the very distinct phases of James Anderson’s statistically remarkable career as the England swing master moves well beyond 500 Test wickets.
Kandy, December 2007. Sri Lanka were slowly building their second innings after trailing England by 93, with Sanath Jayasuriya, in his final Test, on 31. James Anderson, 25 years old and in his 20th, more than four and a half years after his first, had bowled three overs for eight. Six balls later, Jayasuriya was on 55, and Anderson had bowled four overs for 32. For only the fourth time in Tests, a batsman had hit six fours in an over – two slapped over extra cover, one slashed through Ian Bell’s fingertips at slip, a square-drive, a pull and a thick edge.
Sri Lanka declared at 442 for eight, with Anderson conceding 128 in 23 overs, for the wicket of Michael Vandort. It was his third mauling in consecutive Tests, after figures of one for 134 at Trent Bridge and four for 182 at The Oval, both against India. In those three games, he had conceded 90 boundaries – one every nine balls. England lost at Kandy, and Anderson was dropped, again.
His previous 13 caps had come in seven different stints, spread over 50 Tests. And he had a bowling average of 39. Among England seamers, only Chris Lewis (52 wickets at 39), Phillip DeFreitas (48 at 42) and Andrew Flintoff (32 at 46) had worse averages after 20 Tests (though Stuart Broad and Ben Stokes have since joined the club). His economy-rate of 3.74 was, at that point, the fourth-worst of anyone who had bowled more than 500 overs. There had been flashes of quality, but the Great Selectorial Scrapheap of English Cricketing Hopes must have been gurgling in anticipation, ready to receive the tattered, abbreviated career of yet another wasted talent.
In a less patient era, Anderson might have been discarded after Kandy. Before central contracts, he might have been worn down by the grind of firstclass cricket, rather than preserved and prepared for the international game.
Instead, the sport has been treated to a decade of a supreme craftsman and competitor, honing and perfecting his art, achieving feats and creating statistics that even the most ardent Lancastrian would not have thought conceivable as Jayasuriya peppered the boundary, and another promising England bowler seemed destined to fall hundreds and hundreds of Test wickets short of 500.
Andy Zaltzman is believed to be the first to achieve the double of being both a stand-up comedian and a scorer-statistician for Test Match Special.
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