Jimmy Anderson may have been dozing on the fourth day of the Grenada Test match, rather like many of the onlookers. But he was wide-awake on the fifth.
England’s record-breaking bowler was embarrassingly run-out on Friday, unaware that the ball was in the hands of the bowler while he trotted down the pitch like an occasional Sunday jogger. His partner, Joe Root, was obviously livid; he managed to keep his mouth shut but was clearly appalled at Anderson’s doziness. There were more runs to be had out there.
But on Saturday, as if in atonement, Anderson was razor-sharp and indeed Bothamesque. Everything hinged upon him; he was England’s Lionel Messi or possibly their Danny Ings (well, with limited knowledge he is the best I can muster for a Burnley man).
The ball followed Anderson in the field and how he welcomed it. The catch to dispose of Jermaine Blackwood was nowhere as simple as Anderson made it look. At mid-off it is tricky to judge the pace of the ball; Anderson had to time his jump perfectly and he did. Recently he has been banished from the slips – he had lost confidence – but he still has wonderfully safe, relaxed hands. He proved that again with a more straightforward catch at mid-on to dismiss Kemar Roach just before lunch.
The run-out of Jason Holder demanded a special athleticism.
Anderson had just bowled eight overs. But ever alert he sped to his left, threw and unerringly hit the base of the stumps. These were inspirational moments in the field but it was, of course, Anderson’s bowling that swayed the Test match.
With that Botham landmark out of the way Anderson has relaxed and how it shows. He looked uncomfortable with all the attention as he neared the record. But now he cruised to the crease with the second new ball. Sometimes he bowled out at 89 mph but it did not seem an effort to do so. Contrast that with Stuart Broad who also propelled some 89 mph deliveries but one could see his knees and elbows pumping vigorously. It was a strain for Broad to reach that pace, but not for Anderson, who was gliding.
His rhythm and technique were so pure that he seduced life from the most moribund of surfaces. When he was bowling the pitch was suddenly a snake-pit, when the other pacemen were in action it was a sand-pit.
Anderson has been around long enough to recognise that the new ball was England’s big opportunity to win the match. They could not afford to waste it. It was almost their last chance.
The delivery that dismissed Kraigg Brathwaite leapt up as if this was the Waca rather than the West Indies, where there is, sadly, a plethora of slow, dead pitches.
Anderson found pace off the pitch, which was beyond his peers. This surprised the batsmen and also Ian Bell at second slip when Shivnarine Chanderpaul edged but a desperate captain knows how to gather up a ricochet. Then the somnolent Marlon Samuels edged a simple catch to Jos Buttler.
Samuels had given England some advice on the first day when he scored runs and had been invited to indulge in some repartee with Ben Stokes. “It’s obvious the English boys don’t learn”, he said, “because whenever they talk to me I continue scoring runs. But they keep on talking. They can’t help it”.
Well, perhaps they can. It seems that England chose not to engage verbally with Samuels and they got him relatively cheaply. Anderson was in the zone and refrained from sending him off, and even Stokes appeared muted.
The odd thing was that the ball swung very little, which is usually Anderson’s greatest asset. The seam was visible going down the pitch; time and time again it stood proud in textbook, vertical fashion; it gripped into the turf and somehow Anderson had contrived to resuscitate a surface that had been sleeping for a couple of days.
The sole source of alarm for England fans was how much more venomous Anderson was compared to his peers. Even so there was much to smile about on an otherwise gloomy day for Burnley folk.
