Whatever happens on
Sunday evening (and I sincerely wish for an England win) this time tomorrow the
country will be swamped under a freak tide of football mania so before that a
hurried and highly self indulgent appreciation of one of this country’s
greatest ever sportsmen.
It had to end
sometime and although there is sense to the management’s thinking it’s a shame
Jimmy wasn’t able to chose precisely when.
188 test matches over 21 years and I’ve followed every single one of
them in some way. The records and
landmarks came and went, the acclaim – “England’s greatest pace bowler” was awarded
long before the end. Add to that, the
greatest swing bowler cricket has ever seen, there will be few dissenters. Apart from following on TMS or TV I have been
at the grounds to watch nine of Jimmy’s test matches and was lucky enough to
watch Jimmy bowl on eight occasions. On
these occasions I travelled sometimes with friends, sometimes with family and
often with both.
Against West Indies
at Edgbaston in 2004, England had dominated the game with Hundreds from Trescothick
and Flintoff in the first innings and a second ton from Tres in the second. This West Indies team contained the likes of
Lara, Gayle, and Chanderpaul so were no push overs. Sarwan hit a hundred but still England were
miles ahead. When we arrived for the
fourth day England were going for quick runs to set a target, Thorpe scored
fifty odd and we saw Jimmy get one of his record number of “not outs”. England bowled, Hoggard opened things up and
Giles went through the middle order.
Gayle made 88 before falling to Giles and a baby faced Jimmy came on to
take the last two wickets of Lawson and Collymore, both clean bowled and we
celebrated an England win. This was
virtually the same England squad that kept improving and beat Australia a year
later in the best series ever seen.
At Trent Bridge in
2007 Anderson was in the period of his career where he hadn’t yet stepped up a
gear and made his place in the side secure, (the previous year England had
selected Plunkett and Lewis ahead of him).
This match England were bowled out for 198 and a reply of 481 saw India
well on top. On the fourth day we were
treated to an England fight back with 126 from Vaughan and fifties for Strauss
and Collingwood. Jimmy made 1, bowled by
the great Anil Kumble and he didn’t take a wicket on this occasion. India went on to win the match by seven
wickets and take the series.
At the same ground a
year later England thrashed New Zealand. Pietersen scored a ton on the first
day to set a score of 364 and when New Zealand went in Jimmy took career best
figures of 7-43 to make the Kiwis follow on.
They done a little better on second innings but at times it looked like
the game could be all over on day three.
At the beginning of the fourth day New Zealand needed 65 to make England
bat again but they didn’t get there, it was all over by lunch. Ryan Sidebottom ripped through to finish with
6 wickets. Jimmy took the last wicket to
fall having Chris Martin caught at slip by Collingwood and England had won by
an innings.
Later in the summer
we went to Edgbaston to see England face a much tougher South African
team. England batted first and made a sub-par
231, South Africa replied with 314 so things could have been worse. In the second innings a brilliant ton from
Collingwood had England back in the game with a chance of edging ahead. On the fourth day Colly was batting with the
tail and managed to add another 60 odd to stretch the lead, he was last man out
for 135, Jimmy was bowled by Kallis for one.
South Africa needed 280+ to win and for a long time it looked like they’d
never get there, Anderson had Ashwell Prince caught at the wicket and the
Saffers were 93/4. De Villiers scored a
few as did Boucher but Graham Smith was brilliant, finishing not out on 154 as
South Africa won by 5 wickets. (But
there is a caveat, DRS would have revealed Smith was out to Panesar who bowled
well).
We returned to Trent
Bridge in 2010 to watch an England team that was settled under Strauss’
captaincy and was getting better and better.
Pakistan are always dangerous opponents though, although this team
actually went home in disgrace in the end.
England scored 354 with Eoin Morgan of all people scoring 130. When Pakistan replied they were all out for
182 with Anderson taking 5-54 and was by now recognisable as the bowler we came
to admire. On the fourth day England
were extending their lead but became a bit bogged down, Matt Prior got things
moving with 102 setting a target of well over 400. Jimmy scored 2! Then Pakistan’s second innings, wow! Broad started things rolling with two quick
wickets then Anderson had Imran Farhat caught by Strauss at first slip and the
day ended at 15/3. On the following day the
crowd saw a Jimmy Anderson masterclass, he was just unplayable, finishing with
figures of 15-8-17-6, all the wickets either LBW or caught in the slips –
inswing or outswing, brilliant! His
match figures of 11/71 remain his career best.
In 2011 we saw the
third day of England vs India at Trent Bridge. On this occasion we batted all
day with 159 from Ian Bell along with half centuries from Pietersen and Morgan saw
us over turn a first innings deficit. Jimmy didn’t get on the field that day but
took five wickets in a match England ending up winning comfortably. At the end of this series England were
crowned the official number one team in the world.
Trent Bridge again
in 2012 for a spring test match against the West indies who batted first and
racked up a decent score of 370 with Samuals and Sammy both getting hundreds. England were officially the best team in the
world and responded well with a score of built around 142 from Strass who was
still going when the entire Hastings family, three generations, arrived on the
third morning. England had a strong line
up in those days and everyone chipped in with a few runs, except Bairstow who
was worked over by Kemar Roach and Jimmy who was out for a duck but crucially
we had a first innings lead. When West
indies went out again Jimmy opened the bowling and took the first two wickets;
Barath LBW and Powell bowled to reduce them to 14/2 from which they never
recovered. When we left at the end of
the day West Indies were 61/6 and were eventually all out for 165 with Anderson
taking four. England knocked off the
required runs to win by nine wickets.
Later in the year we
travelled down to the Oval to see the formidable South Africans again. England had made 385 and in reply the Saffers
were 86/1 at the beginning of the third day, Jimmy had taken the only wicket to
fall. On this occasion we got to watch Anderson
bowl all day but it was a painful experience as Smith did us again with 131,
then Amla and Kallis both got amongst the runs finishing the day unbeaten and
going on to make big hundreds. When
South Africa declared on 637/2 Kallis was 182 not out and Amla had 311. Suffice to say South Africa won by an innings
and by the end of the series had replaced England as world number one.
We returned to the
Oval in 2013 for the ultimate, the first day of an Ashes test match! This was the final test of a series we were
leading 3-0 so there was no tension and we were confident of watching England
roll the Aussies one more time. It didn’t
work out like that though as the day finished with Australia 316/4; Shane
Watson of all people scored 176 and Steve Smith made 60 odd and completed his
maiden test century the following day. However
we did see four wickets and the two from Jimmy couldn’t have been sweeter,
David Warner caught at the wicket by Prior for 6 and Michael Clarke bowled
through the gate for 7. The game
finished in a high scoring draw, Clarke set a target and England went for it
and were on course before running out of time.
There have been
hundreds of times when James Anderson had me out of my chair and punching the
air but for nine of Jimmy’s 188 test matches I was at the ground and I saw him
score 12 of his 1353 runs, take 1 of his 107 catches and 9 of his 704 wickets. I’ve been lucky enough to see a dozen or more
genuinely great English cricketers in the flesh but Jimmy Anderson may be the
greatest of all.