600 NOT OUT FOR JIMMY
Anderson weathers the storms to blast out Azhar and become first fast bowler to break through magical barrier
A LITTLE bit of away movement off the pitch, some extra bounce and Azhar Ali could only fend the ball to the waiting hands of skipper Joe Root at slip.
And he did not dare drop this one. It was 4.36pm and the 38-year-old Jimmy Anderson had done it.
After waiting for more than five hours for the rain to stop and the ground to be fit to play, it took Anderson just 14 balls to claim the 600th Test wicket of his career.
He held his arm aloft and joined Root for a double fistbump before giving social distancing the heave-ho as they embraced for a warm hug.
Anderson’s family, friends and thousands of England fans would normally have been at the Ageas Bowl cheering him on but this time it really was one man and his dog, Winston – the groundsman’s spaniel who has his own accreditation. The game might have been played behind closed doors but there was plenty of applause from those lucky enough to be inside the ground – team-mates, backroom staff, ground staff and the media.
The extended applause rang around the ground as Anderson raised the ball in acknowledgement of a remarkable achievement.
At the end, Anderson led England’s Test team off the field for the last time in 2020 – as the undisputed king of bowlers in a summer of two series wins.
This third Test was drawn thanks to the weather but there was enough time for the champagne moment.
It had not been easy for Anderson to move from 598 to 600, with the weather and the Pakistan batsmen doing their best to deny him his magic moment.
But he kept going and when his team-mates were dropping catches, he carried on creating more chances. When Root held the catch to spark the celebrations there would have been more than a hint of relief that this one had stuck after the delays caused by four previous drops.
It soon became apparent that of the four men to have reached this astonishing mark, Anderson was the second fastest to get there taking 33,717 balls to do so...just six balls, one solitary over, more than
Muttiah Muralitharan.
“Wow, what an amazing achievement,” said former skipper Sir Alastair Cook. “Sport is such a funny thing. Three weeks ago
people were saying Jimmy was looking old and then he suddenly pulled out a five-for and looks as good as ever. The bloke is a genius.”
To have played 156 Tests in 17 years has taken mind-boggling amounts of hard work and an almost sadistic ability to cope with pain.
Bloodied, bruised and broken at times, he has shown the character to keep going Anderson is a dying breed. He loves the game and even though he made his breakthrough as a white-ball star, he has worked hardest on the red-ball skills that are the hardest to master.
He is an artist, a craftsman and an expert in his field.