Five-star Anderson’s swinging in the rain

JIMMY ANDERSON claimed no team in the world would have been able to cope with England’s bowling attack yesterday.

After his stunning five-wicket haul put Joe Root’s side in the driving seat at Lord’s, the 36-year-old admitted: “I find it so much fun when it’s like that.

“You don’t often get conditions like that in England any more, when the ball does that much through the air and off the pitch.

“I think if we bowled like that today, with those conditions, we’d bowl most teams out – we were that good.

“We hardly bowled any bad balls, didn’t give them much to hit at all – and when you build pressure like that all day, no matter who you are around the world, it is difficult.

“We exploit those conditions as well as anyone in the world. I don’t think it’s just the Indian batsmen that would have struggled.”

In a game dominated by bad weather, it was raining wickets as Virat Kohli’s shell-shocked tourists were dismissed for just 107.

Anderson’s 5-20 did most damage, but Root’s side were also indebted to a crucial spell by Chris Woakes, who took 2-19 including the key scalp of Kohli.

It means despite a first-day washout, England have a genuine chance of victory even though just 35.2 overs have been bowled so far.

The weather forecast is more promising today, so it will be up to the batsmen to drive home the advantage. Anderson set the tone in the first period with a classic display of swing bowling.

He produced a stunning away-swinger to bowl Murali Vijay off the fifth ball then more of the same got rid of KL Rahul and India were 10-2.

After a delay of more than two hours, the players returned for 12 balls, during which Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara groped around against Anderson and Stuart Broad.

But the only wicket that fell before the heavens opened again did not require the input of the bowlers.

Pujara set off for a single and Kohli originally ran but, with his partner almost at the other end, sent him back.

It left Pujara stranded as Ollie Pope started his Test debut with a run out.

England were then forced to wait more than three hours before getting a third crack and ultimately taking charge.

Woakes, back from the thigh and knee injuries that have blighted his summer, had Kohli caught on 23 by Jos Buttler at second slip – just one ball after the same man had dropped him.

The same thing happened with the fall of India’s fifth wicket, Buttler again spilling a chance off Woakes to spare Hardik Pandya before grasping the second edge the next ball.

Sam Curran then bowled Dinesh Karthik before Anderson struck twice in quick succession to remove Ajinkya Rahane and Kuldeep Yadav.

Broad trapped Ravi Ashwin lbw, before Anderson fittingly had the final say by getting rid of Ishant Sharma.