It was rumoured that England’s leading Test wicket-taker was on the verge of retirement after a poor return at Old Trafford – 38-year-olds are not allowed the luxury of inconsistency
It looked like the simplest little trick, as predictable and familiar as a father’s are to his teenage son. In the first over of this Test, Jimmy Anderson bowled five deliveries across Shan Masood, which made him lean across and reach for the ball outside off. Then, in his second over, Anderson swung the ball back into him. The ball was a little too short and a little too wide on the leg side the first time he tried it, so Anderson did it all again, fuller and straighter this time, and, whump, the ball thumped into that front pad, which looked, all of a sudden, as colossal and unavoidable as the white cliffs of Dover.
So Masood, who had batted so well in the first Test, was swiftly dealt with. It was the seventh time Anderson has got Masood out in Test cricket, which puts him in good company, right alongside Che Pujara, Kumar Sangakkara, and Jacques Kallis in the list of players Anderson has dismissed most often. He’s made bunnies of many better batsmen.
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