JIMMY’S UP TO SPEED AGAIN
England on top as revived Anderson strikes twice to close on 600 wickets
JAMES ANDERSON backed up his words with deeds to help put England firmly on top in a truncated opening day in Southampton.
Anderson took two wickets to move to within eight of a landmark 600 Test scalps. And he looked like he was enjoying himself.
By the time heavy rain, bad light and the threat of lightning had taken its toll, the tourists had scrambled to 126-5 with more challenges to face on day two.
Despite everything he has achieved in the game, Anderson revealed his own insecurities this week after a poor performance in Manchester during the first Test. At 38 he was desperate to prove there is plenty more to come from him and that any talk of retirement is just that.
And just eight balls into a game he was not supposed to be playing in, he let his bowling skills do the talking as Shan Masood, right, was removed lbw for just one.
The new ball was presented with precise perfection, seam pointing towards second slip as it arced on to the pitch, straightened off the surface and thudded into the pad right in front of the stumps.
It was an easy lbw to give and Masood initially looked like he might walk before he remembered he should at least think about the review. Thankfully that is all he did, knowing that Anderson had beaten him for the seventh time in his career.
The plan had been for Anderson to sit out the second match in both series this summer, but England decided to give their best bowler the chance to find his rhythm.
They also freshened up the bowling attack by swapping Sam Curran for Jofra Archer, showing they are also prepared to shelve their Ashes development by picking a team solely for the job at home.
From playing both Archer and Mark Wood together in the first Test of the summer, they opted for neither, leaving
them without a 90mph bowler to call on with Ben Stokes also missing.
Anderson did his best to make up for any perceived lack of pace by producing an average speed of 84.5mph, his fastest since 2014, and he was rewarded with the wicket of Azhar Ali for 20, well held by Rory Burns at second slip.
The Pakistan skipper looked stunned at the dismissal. Probably because he couldn’t quite believe the chance had stuck.
Burns and Dom Sibley, at third slip, had put down a catch apiece, allowing Abid Ali to score a first Test fifty to go with his two Test tons.
In home conditions, under heavy and humid skies, teasing edges are bread and butter for English seamers so their slip fielders simply must do better.And they did.
Curran and Stuart Broad tested the cordon again and both Burns and Sibley held on to remove Abid for 60 and Asad Shafiq for five.
The look of relief on Sibley’s face when he clung on to Shafiq’s edge told the story.
There was time for Chris Woakes to strike, with Fawad Alam’s return to Test cricket ending after five minutes with an lbw review from Root.