Such was the ruthless nature of England’s performance in ideal bowling conditions at Lord’s on Friday that Jimmy Anderson, the architect of India’s 107 all out, felt they would have rolled out any batting line-up in world cricket for a similar total – including their own.
Figures of five for 20, sealed with the removal of the No 11, Ishant Sharma, lbw, left England’s 36-year-old attack leader one short of becoming the first bowler to 100 Test wickets at the ground and one shy of 550 in all.
Following a stop-start day that ended with Joe Root’s side seemingly in full control of this truncated second Test, Anderson admitted that not to have inflicted serious damage, given things were so tilted in their favour, would have been a serious disappointment.
“I think if we bowled like that we would bowl most teams in the world out – we were that good. When you get the opportunity like that you lick your lips and try to show off your skills,” said Anderson, following his 26th five-wicket haul. “We hardly bowled any bad balls, we didn’t give them much to hit at all and, when you build pressure like that all day, no matter who you are around the world, it is difficult. I think if we were bowling at our batsmen, we’d have had the better of them. We exploit those conditions as well as anyone in the world. I don’t think it’s just the Indian batsmen that would have struggled.
“Honestly I’d have been so disappointed if I’d messed up today. They were the ideal conditions. It’s so much fun when it’s like that. You don’t often get conditions like that in England any more, when the ball does that much through the air and off the pitch.”
A minor source of annoyance for England remains in the catching, however, with Root at fourth slip dropping Ajinkya Rahane off Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler, the new man at second, grassing chances off Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya. Curiously Buttler atoned for both his missed chances the very next ball, giving Chris Woakes two wickets on his return following a lengthy spell off through injury. While delighted for his teammate, Anderson admitted to some jealousy over his claiming of the wicket of Kohli, given he has yet to get the better of him in this series.
Anderson said: “The drops are frustrating because, though we were forced to change the slip cordon,we’ve worked hard on it again this week. It’s an area to improve on but thankfully [Buttler] made up for both mistakes and credit to him, keeping his focus.”
On his duel with Kohli, Anderson added: “I was thinking why can’t he edge them like everyone else? I’ve really enjoyed the contest between myself and him. He’s No 1 in the world for a reason. For me I love playing against the best players in the world, testing yourself and seeing whether you can get the better of them.
“It’s a really thrilling thing to be a part of, and unfortunately I’ve not got the better of him yet but I’ll continue to try my hardest throughout the rest of the series.”
