Jimmy Anderson delivered his best figures in Ashes cricket to see England bounce back from their nightmare defeat at Lord’s and go into day two of the third Test with Australia already battling to stay in the contest.
Anderson’s six for 47, supported by two wickets apiece from Stuart Broad and Steven Finn, rolled the tourists out for 136 in Birmingham after their captain, Michael Clarke, won the toss. Alastair Cook’s side reached 133 for three at stumps for a slender three-run deficit and go into Thursday with Joe Root unbeaten on 30 alongside the newly arrived Jonny Bairstow. Ian Bell made 53.
As a response to the series-levelling 405-run mauling in the second Test it was emphatic. Anderson, who went wicketless in that defeat for the first time in 59 matches, put it down to a desire from his England team-mates to prove they should not be written off in this compelling series and claimed their performance could be bettered still. “We were all disappointed with the way we performed at Lord’s but the week away did us good,” said Anderson. “We arrived here refreshed and raring to go. Knowing we could play better was driving us on. We wanted to prove to people we could play better than that.
“Getting a six-for in an Ashes Test – a crucial game – will rank highly for me on that level but from a specific bowling point of view I think I can bowl better. And we can as a group. We got edges and a few poor shots so there is a possibility of bowling better than that, which is really exciting.”
Cook and the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, in the wake of Lord’s, requested a more English-style pitch and the Warwickshire groundsman, Gary Barwell, duly delivered. Anderson, however, believes there are still runs to be made, with Root and Bairstow, on one, set to resume in the morning. “It’s a typical English pitch, so hopefully that will help us,” he added. “Get in and there are scoring opportunities but bowl well and you will create chances. It will be hard work for us but, if the sun is out, that will help. Hopefully a couple of our guys can go on to get big scores.
“We were hoping to win the toss and bat as we thought it looked a good pitch. We weren’t expecting anywhere near the amount of seam movement we got early on. The conditions, with rain around and the floodlights on at times during the day, played into our hands.”
The opener Chris Rogers was the sole Australia batsman to show any resistance, top-scoring for the tourists with a hard-fought 52 after being passed fit following the worrying dizzy spell suffered at Lord’s. He said: “It was one of those innings you just had to fight for everything you get and that’s probably been a characteristic of my career. They were tough conditions, I don’t think we expected them to be as hard as they were.
“The cloud came over and it swung, it seamed and I just managed to get through it. The others got some good balls – and there were some disappointing shots as well. I read a lot after Lord’s where people thought it was almost game over but there’s no way you disrespect the opposition. Particularly when you get conditions like this.”
Asked about reports of disquiet in the Australia dressing room after the decision to retain the wicketkeeper Peter Nevill over the veteran Brad Haddin, who missed Lord’s because of family reasons, Rogers replied: “I don’t really want to talk about that. That’s something for the selection panel. Maybe at the end of the series I can think about it. But at the moment I don’t really want to talk about that.”
