SUPER JIMMY IS THE OLDEST STINGER IN TOWN
Sprint star inspires his six-wicket haul
JAMES ANDERSON hit the big 3-0 as he continued to push the bar ever higher with the finest performance of his career in Sri Lanka. And he revealed how the second-greatest athlete in the world during the 1980s has helped him improve.
USA sprint king Carl Lewis (right) was famously dubbed
No.2 by British golden hero
Daley Thompson, but he is inspiring Anderson to stay at
No.1 with a ball in his hand.
His 6-40 in the second Test in Galle was the 30th five-wicket haul of an astonishing Test career in which he is still rewriting the record books at the age of 38.
And after becoming the oldest seam bowler to take a five-wicket haul on the subcontinent, he revealed just how much attention to detail and hunger for improvement it takes to continue excelling after so long at the top.
“It was rocket hot out there so to get the rewards certainly feels good,” said Anderson. “And I don’t think I’m surprising myself.
“I don’t see why I can’t keep improving just because I’m getting older.the more work you do, the more effort you put in, the more rewards you get generally.
“I’ve worked really hard on my fitness in the last 12 months, lockdowns have actually helped that quite a bit. I’m working on stuff like running technique to make me quicker.
“I am obsessed with Carl Lewis at the minute, watching him run. I don’t know if you can see a comparison with me chasing the ball to the boundary!
“It’s about trying to take pressure off my body. If I have got good technique doing stuff then hopefully muscle injuries don’t come around as much as they can do as you get older.”
It is not just about health and fitness, though, where Anderson is concerned.the skills he continues to develop are second to none, such as the off-cutter he produced to deny Niroshan Dickwella a maiden Test ton when he had him caught in the covers for 92.
Sri Lanka were able to reach 381 before Sam Curran wrapped up the innings, with Dilruwan Perera the last man out for 67.
It meant all 10 wickets were captured by seamers, with Mark Wood’s 3-84 a triumph of gutbusting effort. Not since England bowled out Bangladesh in 2003 have all 10 wickets fallen to seam bowlers in Asia and this was the first time it had been done in Sri Lanka.
England, though, cannot rely on their pacemen to produce this kind of display in the next four matches in India, where the pitches are likely to be just as flat.
They will need more support from the spin department in providing pressure and control if they are not a big wicket-taking threat.
Neither Dom Bess nor Jack Leach provided much of either in the first innings, going for a combined 195 runs from 64 overs. England fell to 5-2 in reply before Joe Root’s 67 not out from 77 balls led them to 98-2 at the close.