England / Sri Lanka

James Anderson fully capable of spending nine years at the wrong end

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James Anderson watching the ball in much the same way that he doesn't when bowling

If ever you want to form a pantomime horse with James Anderson, don’t expect him to dress appropriately the first time. Don’t expect him to get it right the second time, third time, or fourth time either. But give him a while. After nine years of equine double-arsedness, he might finally work things out.

That was how long it took him at Headingley. After nine years bowling from the Kirkstall Lane End to no great effect, Jimmy finally switched to the Football Stand End for this match and promptly took ten wickets.

As for his bowling, well, we covered that yesterday. And about 40 times before that. There really isn’t much left to say.

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17 comments

  1. Oh-hoh, yes there is. There’s one big thing left to say. One thing that even Uncled Jrod couldn’t say conclusively, but one which every single armchair critic can.

    Is Jimmy, thus far, a great bowler?

    1. Ugh. We can do a piece on that if you want. On that and greatness in a more general sense.

      1. Only if you want to oh King. Goodness knows some people wouldn’t be happy about it whichever way you fall.

        Perhaps it could be called, “James Anderson is better than Sachin Tendulkar.”

      2. I think Jimmy truly is great.

        I think of Jimmy as a great, now, in the way I looked on Malcolm Marshall as a great in the autumn of his career. Never absolutely the quickest. Never absolutely at the top of the rankings. Yet for years and years up there among the best. And as age/career duration took away some of the pace and nip, skill, guile and determination make the man seem somehow even more reliable and useful in the autumnal bowling career. Rare and truly great qualities in my view.

        “Up there with Malcolm Marshall” is about as big a complement that I can pay a pace bowler, btw.

        No rush for your greatness piece, your majesty. In your own time, as far as I am concerned. Don’t let your subjects try to bully you into writing stuff to order. They should know better than that by now.

      3. OMGed u such a blinkred englishman!!!!!! jimmy andersNO is nowere near as gud as TRU GREATS like STEYN ASHWIN n the one teh only LITTLE MASTER SACHIN!!!!!! srilanka wil thrash Eng in next test with TRU GREATS Chameera Eranga Pradeep n the mighty DASUN SHANANANANAKAAAAAAA

        (Apologies to absolutely everyone.)

  2. I’m still not entirely comfortable with this whole “England winning something” thing.

    Three days just seems a bit harsh.

    1. Nonsense, BailOut.

      Take a deep breath, let out a bestial roar as you exhale and you should feel a whole load more victorious, happy and glorious.

      Then move on, attention-wise, to the current round of county championship matches.

      Simples.

      1. I just think winning something is a bit embarrassing really. In 3 days anyway. At least, given that the game could have been a whole lot closer had Sri Lanka just got two wickets a bit earlier. It could have been one of those weird tests where the third day was clearly going to bring forth the result but with some serious nailbiting guaranteed before the result became clear. As it was, most of the tension revolved around the race between bowlers and rain.

      4. That’s a very good point. I think a more definitive statistic would be days of rain (including measly mizzley stuff) rather than cumulative mm. But you can’t argue with stats – or weather.

  3. In actual fact he took nine from the Football Stand end, because he was given the final over of the match from the Kirkstall land end with nine wickets down to he could complete his 10-fer 😉

    Did I mention I was there?

    I am able to confirm that, yes, I have seen a parrot down a pint.

      1. I think I mentioned the cricket once but hoped to get away with it under the guise of pedantry.

    1. ‘Ian Chappell, how can you ban the Universe Boss? You’d have to ban cricket itself.”’

      The biggest names in world cricket. And Chris Rogers.

      I’d have thought the biggest names in cricket were those belonging to some of the Sri Lankan squad.

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