Jimmy: Losing was just brutal
JIMMY ANDERSON says England are determined to eradicate the ‘horrendous’ sessions that cost them the second Test against Pakistan as they prepare for Sunday’s mustwin finale here.
In a pattern that is recurring too often, they threw away any chance of victory when they lost seven wickets for 36 runs on the third morning in Dubai.
Anderson said it was ‘brutal’ to have lost that game after coming so close to saving it on the final day but England know they the must excise suicidal sessions from their repertoire.
‘We’ve played nine good days of cricket and we’ve had one horrendous session,’ said Anderson. ‘We shot ourselves in the foot. We didn’t bat properly in the first innings and that’s ultimately put us in the position where we’re 1-0 down. We feel quite positive, because we’ve played some good cricket and it could be 1-1 or 1-0 to us in different circumstances.’
Alastair Cook’s obvious irritation after the Dubai game had its roots in a series of collapses which have condemned England to five defeats in 12 Tests in 2015, to go with five victories.
At Bridgetown in May they surrendered the series against West Indies by slipping to 39 for five on the second evening — a trick they repeated against New Zealand at Headingley, when they lost four for 38. Their two Ashes defeats were both hastened by second-evening carelessness. At Lord’s they gave up four for 30; at The Oval it was seven for 77.
Anderson, who has been bowling beautifully in trying circumstances, called upon more support for Cook and Joe Root, who have scored 615 runs in this series, compared with 543 from England’s other nine.
‘There will come a time when other people do need to step up out here,’ he said. ‘We can’t keep relying on certain people.’
Central to England’s firstinnings surrender from the heights of 206 for three to the depths of 242 all out was the feisty reverse swing of Pakistan’s left-arm seamer Wahab Riaz.
He later came under fire after Root appeared to accuse him of treading on the ball — althoughh the umpires found no evidence to suppor the suspicion.
Anderson admit-ted: ‘He’s a very good bowler but he always wants to get under your skin. That’s something we were aware of coming into the series andd we have dealt with it pretty well.’
Yet Wahab may bee the least of England’s prob-problems on what is expected to be a turning pitch here and legspinner Yasir Shah, who claimed eight wickets in Dubai, will prove a handful.
Well though the seamers have bowled — and they have been half as costly as England spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid — their accuracy and stamina will be fully tested by a surface that is among the most unyielding in the world game.
Through something close to gritted teeth, Anderson said: ‘Our stats man was very kind to put a few things up on the wall about seam movement and swing percentages at the start of the series — and Sharjah was three per cent seam movement, which was pretty depressing from a bowler’s point of view.’
That means three balls in every 100 are expected to deviate beyond the norm. England will need to make good use of them.
James Anderson was speaking on behalf of Waitrose, Official Sponsor of the England Cricket Team. For exclusive player content visit waitrose.com/cricket