It had been a long time coming, and yet it was over in an instant.

James Anderson won the battle in 2014, dismissing Virat Kohli four times in England’s 3-1 win as the Indian titan endured the lowest stretch of his career so far. In 2018, Kohli tightened his technique and rode his luck, topping the run charts and avoiding a dismissal by Anderson, even as he played and missed and edged and was dropped. There were also two bouts in India, each won by the hosts, with Anderson peripheral and Kohli reigning supreme.

That first ball this time around, the next installment of Anderson v Kohli, was always going to be seismic, setting the tone for the series to come, perhaps the two greatest of their disciplines this era going head to head, and perhaps for the last time.

You know all this of course, and you know what happened next. The ball from Anderson came in a fraction before hitting the pitch at that perfect length and moving away just enough. Kohli was committed to playing, and the ball took the edge on the way through to Jos Buttler. A second golden duck in two innings in England. A first dismissal by Anderson in seven years. A moment that will live forever in the memory, as Anderson confirmed, speaking to Michael Atherton on Sky Sports Cricket the next morning.

What a moment. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/6PIdxxDEt0

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) August 5, 2021

“It’s been quite a while since I’ve got him so it is quite nice especially to get such an influential player in their side out early on. We knew the game was drifting in that favour a bit with that opening partnership. So to get us back in the game and get Virat out was very special. I was out of breath after that [celebration], needed a few minutes just to get my breath back. Not sure why I was that animated, like you said I’m not normally that animated, but the game situation and the quality of the player of Virat and like I said I’ve not got him out for quite a while.”

What might be less obvious is the subtle difference in Anderson’s method in his latest duel with Kohli. The Englishman explained, after prompting by Atherton, how an adaptation of his customary ‘wobble seam’ delivery, bowled with a seam which oscillates between pointing at first slip and fine leg to extract unpredictable movement off the pitch, proved Kohli’s undoing.

“My thinking there is, I’m using the wobble seam grip so it might nip either way off the pitch,” Anderson explained. “So I am putting the shiny side on the left so if there is any swing it might hopefully drift in and then seam either way. It’s just trying to make them play basically. If I had bowled that ball with an outswing shape there’s every chance he would have left it.”

While Anderson admitted that the ball moving off the seam is “a fluke”, rather than predetermined, that, in a way, is part of its strength. The wobble seam itself is an Anderson invention, and he explained how it works when writing for the Daily Mail in 2011, after England’s 3-1 Ashes win in Australia. “I learned it as an extra weapon for last winter’s Ashes, for when the ball stopped swinging,” he wrote. “The fact is that if I’m not sure which way the ball is going to go, the batsman won’t have a clue. My fingers are slightly wider either side of the seam and instead of putting a strong wrist action behind the delivery this ball is more released than pushed out.”

What’s new is the ability to swing a ball bowled with a wobble seam. CricViz analyst Freddie Wilde explained the effect of the addition to the delivery.

“What is revelatory here is Anderson actively looking to swing wobble seam balls,” Wilde tweeted. “By employing wobble seam (a wider grip which causes the seam to wobble) the bowler compromises the seam which traditionally acts as a rudder. By swinging the ball significantly while employing a wobble seam grip the threat of the delivery is heightened – particularly when it’s an inswing & wobble seam combo because inswing draws the shot & then the ball seams & challenges the edge of the bat.

What is revelatory here is Anderson actively looking to swing wobble seam balls. By employing wobble seam (a wider grip which causes the seam to wobble) the bowler compromises the seam which traditionally acts as a rudder (1st slip for outswing; fine leg for inswing). #ENGvIND

— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) August 6, 2021

“This whole thing is so notable because Anderson found a lot of swing—1.5° for the Pujara wicket & 1.1° for Kohli —despite not using the seam to act as a rudder. The fact Anderson can do this is partly the Dukes ball but it is also due to his impeccable wrist position. Anderson’s ability to swing the wobble seam delivery is the latest trick in his epic career & it’s the kind of tiny micro-detail that keeps him at the pinnacle of the game. His fitness enables him to execute this but it’s his skill & genius that truly separates him.”

This whole thing is so notable because Anderson found a lot of swing—1.5° for the Pujara wicket & 1.1° for Kohli —despite not using the seam to act as a rudder. The fact Anderson can do this is partly the Dukes ball but it is also due to his impeccable wrist position. #ENGvIND

— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) August 6, 2021

Here’s the full Anderson-Athers interview @SkyCricket. #ENGvIND pic.twitter.com/QlT1QXHcNu

— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) August 6, 2021

Not only is Anderson constantly adapting and improving, but when it came to this, with Kohli walking out to meet him, the latest chapter of an epic tale ready to unfold, he was able to unleash the perfect ball at the perfect moment. When he nicked off KL Rahul the following day, he moved ahead of Anil Kumble into third place on the all-time Test wicket charts, and he might never have bowled better than he is right now. It seems ridiculous to say, but the best could still be yet to come.

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