To come up with your best-ever Test figures, especially when the team has been struggling to put in place a decent combination, take a crucial five-wicket haul and help the side earn a satisfying 97-run lead, is an effort par excellence. That is exactly what James Anderson—the 24-year-old right-arm medium-pacer from England—did, picking up the crucial wickets of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and cutting the tail short to give the hosts an incisive edge in the first Test. Between him and Ryan Sidebottom, the left-arm medium-pacer, the two collected nine wickets that restricted India to 201 forcing them to lose further initiative in the match, also hassled by rain.With Flintoff, Hoggard and Harmisson out of the Test, nursing injuries, Anderson rated this opportunity as the “perfect chance to cement a place in the Test squad”. After impressive performances in one-day matches against the West Indies that concluded recently, and with Sidebottom in exceptional form, the two did extremely well to make use of the wet and windy conditions. The duo, even as they ran through the opposition, praised debutant Chris Tremlett for the way he came in as first change yesterday when Wasim Jaffer was batting.“Chris bowled really well. We were a bit unlucky though,” Anderson explained. In his 25th over, when the Indian innings collapsed, Anderson had picked up five wickets giving away 42 runs, far better in numbers as compared to the equally impressive Sidebottom and his 4/65 in 22 overs.
