Posted by Today it seems fitting to run this magnificent graphical tribute to James Anderson’s batting, which was sent in by longstanding-but-intermittent King Cricket contributor, Bert, who writes….
Days like this don’t come along very often. We are witnessing the end of one of the greatest eras of sport this country has ever seen – the career of James “Jimmy” Anderson. So it seems appropriate to offer a small graphical tribute to surely the greatest number 11 batter this country has ever produced.
Jimmy Anderson scored zero in Test matches 78 times!
In nearly one third of the total number of times Anderson walked out to bat in tests, he walked back in again having personally contributed less than one run to the total. In more than half of his innings, he contributed zero, one or two runs. One time he contributed 81, but we shouldn’t let this failure mar an otherwise spotless career of tailendery.
A signature James Anderson innings comprised a casual walk to the crease that even David Gower would have been proud of. He took his guard in the manner of all tail-enders, from club level to internationals – with a level of seriousness and detail that would make any umpire think “What’s the bloody point?” And then he stood there while all of the not-quite-best fast bowlers in the world hurled missiles at him.
Often he did this for quite a while. He was part of the highest last-wicket partnership in Test history, of course – this was the match in which he accidentally scored 81. Far more than this, he watched as his batting partners added two and a half thousand runs to England’s total.
Of the runs he scored himself (1,353), 98% were off the edge to the third man boundary. This isn’t true, but certainly most of them were. Or at least some of them. He definitely edged a couple through the slips, I remember that. Utterly bizarrely, his other major scoring stroke was the reverse sweep.
Another astonishing statistic. The job of a batter is firstly to not get out. Anderson batted in a series of partnerships with other batters, many of whom had been picked specifically for their batting ability. And yet at the end of the innings, in 43% of the cases it was our Jimmy who was not out.
> The James Anderson Rubbish Team-Mates XI
Given the closeness of this figure to what would be the statistically most likely number if everything else were equal, this means that everything else must be equal – that is, Anderson was as good at batting as ALL of the people he batted with. Pietersen, Trott, Root, Panesar – Anderson was as good as if not better than all of these.
So, a graph that shows that his most common score was zero not out. And that is how he has finished* – zero, not out.
It will be a long time ’til we see his like again.
*At the time of writing, West Indies are trailing by 171 with four second innings wickets left. If Anderson gets another bat, something will have gone very badly wrong.
Test cricket goes on. Keep an eye out for the sport’s next great number 11 with us by signing up to get our emails.
Great piece, Bert. Read while waiting for the Day Three action to start.
Totally appropriate for the circumstances.
It’s churlish, I know, but I can’t be the only one who would’ve been happier if Jimmy’s final game for England was, y’know, a “test” rather than just a Test.
There’s nothing more insulting to an opposing team than to feel sorry for them.*
*There are, of course, many things more insulting than that.
Anyway, Jimmy – get in there, lad!
Not a classic, but he’s already had his fair share of those.
Very true, KC.
And I think it’s in the nature of goodbyes – meaningful, symbolic, transcendent goodbyes such as this – that they cannot hope to be truly satisfactory.
But then, this sport does lend itself to grand, existential pretensions – the War and Peace of sport. And Jimmy retiring is grand and existential.
Tsch, I’m not even drunk.
And that’s that.
Better this than a gloomy day in September with the nights drawing in.
I still felt it was all a bit ghoulish. Eulogizing a living man; all the talk of bereavement; red everywhere, the colour of passion plays; KC’s repeated posting of pathos-laden, head-in-hands, Christ’s agony in the garden-esque photos of Jimmy…
Like a sacrificial victim, feasted and fêted before the last rites, I half expected him to be killed and eaten at the close of play. Or perhaps immolated in a giant wicker (wicket?) man,
to ensure (so we are told) a bountiful ashes harvest. I rather doubt it.
Now that would have livened up the game. Perhaps his remains could’ve been made into a TMS cake. Suitably decorated of course.
Unsurprisingly, Anderson is top of the list of “not outs” in test cricket, nearly double the next best. Some other statistics:
In his 188 matches, he was out twice only 28 times.
He was most successful at preserving his wicket against Australia (27) and India (25). Not for Jimmy massaging his stats against lesser opposition.
He’s been not out on every continent, but every time he batted in Pakistan, he was out.
His most successful not out year was 2018, when he was unbeaten in 12 out of 18 innings. It was for this that he was first awarded a Nobel Prize. We all got given an extra bank holiday, I recall.
The pandemic had a huge effect on his game, 2020 bringing the worst not out year of his career (1 from 5).
Joe Root is his favourite captain in the not out stakes. However, he has never been not out while playing as wicket keeper, and neither as captain himself.
When England won the toss, he was not out 42.5% of the time. When they lost the toss, this number was 43%. This consistency over tossing is what gave him his nickname, “The Toss Ignorer”.
When batting at #11, he was not out 99 times. However, he’s now finished playing, so that statistic is effectively over and done with. That is, 99 not outs, but not not out.
Didn’t he hold a record for the longest start to a career without ever getting out for a duck, at one point?
Feels a bit odd to care so much about the last day at work for someone I’ve never met (unless you count the time I saw him sheltering from the rain in the Arndale – as recorded for posterity in The Cricket Badger, remember that? – or, y’know, all the times I saw him play cricket), but I’m surprisingly glad that he’s gone out on a high note, even if I think having his last Test at Old Trafford might have been more fitting.
Hopefully he fancies a year of County Championship action to wind down….
He’s the Englishman who went most innings before notching his first duck (54 innings).
https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/most-innings-before-first-duck-284082
Also the seventh most ducks in Test history, which is quite an impressive double.
https://www.espncricinfo.com/records/most-ducks-in-career-283087
Spare a thought for Shoaib Bashir. Batted once, out for a duck, didn’t bowl, no catches or run-outs.
Has anyone ever done less in a completed Test Match?
Adil Rashid ‘had a quiet one’ at the same ground against India in 2018: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/india-tour-of-england-2018-1119528/england-vs-india-2nd-test-1119550/full-scorecard
I don’t know if there are stats on how many times an individual fielded the ball but quite a few players have managed not to trouble the scorers in any regard (even to the extent of recording a ‘0’ next to their name) during a Test that didn’t end in a draw: https://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/stats/index.html?class=1;filter=advanced;orderby=start;qualmax1=0;qualmax2=0;qualmax3=0;qualval1=innings;qualval2=balls;qualval3=dismissals;result=1;result=2;result=3;template=results;type=allround;view=match
Just changing the subject slightly for a moment – someone at Lord’s today bandied the following stat: Jimmy has bowled approximately 4% of all deliveries bowled by England bowlers in tests since the beginning of all time.
Several people in the vicinity thought that simply couldn’t be true, but I took the simple expedient of doing an old-fashioned metaphorical back of a fag packet calculation. England have played 1072 test matches to date, of which Jimmy has played 188. That’s c17.5% of all England test matches since the dawn of time. It is a reasonable estimate that Jimmy would have bowled an average of 23% of the deliveries bowled in the test matches he has played. Ergo, 4% of all deliveries bowled in tests for England, ever.
Also to say…
…there will have been a lot of people at Lord’s today who were there at his first Lord’s test (v Zimbabwe in 2003) as well as his last, because a lot of MCC members attend all tests and have been doing so for decades. But very few of us will have been there for Jimmy’s first and last first class match at Lord’s. But I was there at both. The first one: Middlesex v Lancashire in 2003, about 10 days before his first test
https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/frizzell-county-championship-division-one-2003-124194/middlesex-vs-lancashire-433699/live-cricket-score
I know that very few of us will have been at both because there were very few people at Lord’s for that county match during a cool spell in May.
Strangely, discussing those factoids with one of my tennis mates this afternoon, it turns out that he was one of the other very few people who attended that match. Turns out that, despite his posh-ness, the gentleman is a closet Lancastrian and tends to take the time to attend county matches when it is Middlesex v Lancashire.
Jimmy’s batting on that very first, first class occasion: DNB.
Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy, Anderson.
I think a few players have had those quiet matches where they make no contribution, then it has turned out to be the only test they ever play. Colin wells (or was it Alan?), gavin Hamilton spring to mind. I can’t be bothered to look it up- I’m on holiday, which is exhausting enough on its own. Further- am I the only one who disapproves of these showpiece, planned long in advance retirements a la Warner, Anderson etc? Can’t we just pick the best team from whoever is available?
It was Alan. A golden duck and three not out in his only Test. Gavin Hamilton bagged a pair and took 0-63 in his. Good times.