Arise Sir James Anderson, the finest swing bowler ever
Roar Guru By arthur pagonis, 19 May 2012 The Crowd is a Roar Guru
- Tagged:
- Cricket, England cricket, James Anderson, Test match
England's James Anderson celebrates with teammates as Australia's Michael Clarke ,left, leaves the field after being caught by Alastair Cook, bowled by James Anderson on the second day of the second cricket test match between England and Australia at Lord's cricket ground in London, Friday, July 17, 2009. AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth
Related coverage
James Anderson is the best swing/seam bowler I have ever seen. And I’ve been watching cricket for 61 years. Can I put a caveat on that? He is simply the best ever.
If the coaches of cricket teams around the world sat down and studied his action – his ability to get the new ball moving towards the roughed up side, his ability to reverse the old ball and the movement the upright seam gains off the pitch – it would leave them without a doubt.
Before he retires he will become England’s greatest, and possibly the world’s greatest statistically.
His control of the moving ball is a thing of beauty.
Someone should cut up the highlights from day one of the England versus West Indies first Test and bottle them.
It is the greatest lesson of quick seam and swing bowling one could ever witness.
- Explore:
- Cricket, England cricket, James Anderson, Test match
May 19th 2012 @ 10:30am
Blinky47 said | May 19th 2012 @ 10:30am | Report comment
You obviously have forgotten about Bob Massey,Wasim Akman, and Terry Alderman.
May 19th 2012 @ 1:39pm
Atawhai Drive said | May 19th 2012 @ 1:39pm | Report comment
On the first day of the England-West Indies Test, Anderson swung the ball vast distances in both directions, with no discernible change of action. On the face of it, this was a master class in swing bowling. With one reservation: he only took two wickets. Stuart Broad got seven.
Anderson is good, but unless swing brings wickets (such as Bob Massie’s 16 at Lord’s in 1972) it’s a wasted effort.
It could be that he was swinging the ball too much, in helpful conditions. Swing bowlers hope for nicks; some of Anderson’s deliveries beat the bat by some distance. Perhaps it just wasn’t his day on Thursday.
But watching him, Broad and Bresnan cut loose, I couldn’t help wondering how the Australian top order will go next year. Not forgetting that England have Finn, Tremlett and Onions in reserve.
May 20th 2012 @ 1:02pm
Garfield Robinson said | May 20th 2012 @ 1:02pm | Report comment
You are right. He is indeed a master swing bowler who, if anything, often swings it too much. I also found that when he was bowling on the second day of the Lords test, his inswinger started a bit too early. He swung it later in the second innings but it often still swung too much and the batsmen were not good enough to make contact.
It might be instructive that though he was the one swinging it miles, it was Broad who picked up 6 wickets. Also, with skills like his he should not be averaging over 30 and his strike rate should be a bit lower than the over 56 that it is. Still, he might be the games foremost exponent of the art at present. Steyn I feel is more dangerous because he consistently swings the new ball away considerably later than anyone else, but he does not posses the skills of each way swing that Anderson has.
May 19th 2012 @ 1:48pm
zacbrygel said | May 19th 2012 @ 1:48pm | Report comment
There is no doubt that Anderson is a fantastic swing/seam bowler. However I reckon Glen Mcgrath must be up there with anderson
as one of the best swing bowlers of all time, if not better than Anderson.
May 19th 2012 @ 2:54pm
The Bush said | May 19th 2012 @ 2:54pm | Report comment
He wasn’t a swing bowler.
May 19th 2012 @ 2:43pm
Atawhai Drive said | May 19th 2012 @ 2:43pm | Report comment
McGrath was a fast bowler but he was never regarded as a swing specialist. Like England’s Brian Statham of an earlier era, McGrath’s effectiveness came from his extreme accuracy, his height (allowing him to get steep bounce) and movement off the seam.
The Australian equivalents of Anderson include Terry Alderman, Bob Massie and Alan Davidson, among others.
May 19th 2012 @ 2:58pm
Johnno said | May 19th 2012 @ 2:58pm | Report comment
Excuse me this article seems to forgot the Bowloloigist
-Damien Fleming, Terry Alderman, even Adam Dale was very classy and underrated.
-Also in reality Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis were swing bowlers, just check out there reverse swing ability, or ouswing.
-Andrew Flinttoff reverse swing as was Simon Jones both amazing exponents.
-Does rereverse swing suddenly not count as swing bowling.
-Craig mcdermott had a lovely outswinger as well
-And Shane Bond could do anything with a cricket ball he could swing it both ways.
-And so can Laseth Malinga, Kapil Dev could swing the ball just look at some of the deliveries that got Alan Border out
-Dale Steyn for mine is he not a swing bowler he swings the ball both ways and at 150 plus pace
-Alan Donald had a lovely outswinger, and Lance Klusner could swing the ball a lot too.
-Ishant Sharma is handy too when he is bowling well he swings the ball everywhere too.
May 20th 2012 @ 12:38am
Moreton Bait said | May 20th 2012 @ 12:38am | Report comment
Bob Massie, Terry Alderman, Gary Gilmour, Bruce Reid, Max Walker, Geoff Arnold, Ian Botham, Angus Fraser, Simon Jones, Mike Proctor, Wasim, Waqar, Imran, the names go on and on.
Although I’d class Malcolm Marshall as the best I’ve seen. Could swing both ways at genuine pace, known therefore as a fast bowler, but he had supreme control from a supreme action. Compare the stats – an average of under 20 from 1500ish first class wickets and a 20.9 test ave. Anderson is a fine bowler, but not in the pantheon – yet. MM, RIP!
May 21st 2012 @ 4:14pm
Osmond said | May 21st 2012 @ 4:14pm | Report comment
Malcolm Marshall was The Business.
May 23rd 2012 @ 7:27pm
Jack said | May 23rd 2012 @ 7:27pm | Report comment
Malcolm Marshall and Richard Hadley. Best IMO
June 13th 2012 @ 4:22am
Ironmonger said | June 13th 2012 @ 4:22am | Report comment
Agree that the benchmark is Marshall and Hadlee, although Hadlee’s leg cutter was what really stood him apart from the crowd (which isn’t swing…) so Marshall is the benchmark if you are talking swingers
May 20th 2012 @ 4:30am
Lolly said | May 20th 2012 @ 4:30am | Report comment
Anderson certainly has great control now. That is his big improvement. He has always had the ability to swing the ball monstrously but his control is outstanding now.
May 20th 2012 @ 1:36pm
Brendon said | May 20th 2012 @ 1:36pm | Report comment
This is obviously a joke. Anderson was so good that Broad took 7 wickets in West Indies’ first innings.
One day Anderson might crack the 30 bowling average … maybe before he turns 30 but not before he reaches 9 years from his test debut. 9+ years to get your bowling average under 30 … obviously a great.
May 20th 2012 @ 7:58pm
Disco said | May 20th 2012 @ 7:58pm | Report comment
From all reports Anderson was very good in the first innings, as he usually tends to be these days.
Whether Anderson’s a great or not, I’m not sure, but perhaps you underestimate the improvement and impact he’s made in the past couple years (having earlier lost his way due to injury and changes to his bowling action) SInce January 2010 Anderson’s taken 111 Test wickets at 23, with 74 of those wickets being in the opposition’s top order.
May 21st 2012 @ 7:39pm
Brendon said | May 21st 2012 @ 7:39pm | Report comment
I can cherry pick stats from Mitchell Johnson’s career that make him look like a great test bowler if I wanted to.
May 22nd 2012 @ 7:20pm
Disco said | May 22nd 2012 @ 7:20pm | Report comment
Over what sort of period – 6 months? Johnson flickered briefly and then his massive technical limitations came to the fore; no upward curve, that’s for sure.
Anderson’s improved massively and Johnson’s not his rear end.
May 20th 2012 @ 9:13pm
Rhys said | May 20th 2012 @ 9:13pm | Report comment
Anderson is a very good swing bowler in English conditions. Watching him in the current Test against the Windies, he is getting appreciable movement but as stated above he may be swinging it too much. He’s going at less than 2 per over in the second innings but has gone wicketless.
He won’t get better conditions to prove himself as a swing bowler, overcast conditions and a suspect batting lineup, yet he’s not capitalising. I can only imagine someone like Alderman would have ripped through to take 10+ wickets in the match, like he did more than once all those years ago.
My memories of Alderman are that he delivered the ball from very close to the wicket and got it to swing very late, committing the batsman to play. Anderson delivers from much wider and swings the ball earlier, giving the batsman time to let go or simply just swinging it too much to get an edge.
May 21st 2012 @ 9:09am
Disco said | May 21st 2012 @ 9:09am | Report comment
Of course he’s better in England – at home and in more favourable conditions – but he was also very good in the last Ashes and was England’s best player in the UAE and Sri Lanka.
May 22nd 2012 @ 1:27am
Lolly said | May 22nd 2012 @ 1:27am | Report comment
He used to drop his head when faced with unfavourable conditions but he doesn’t anymore. He’s a very good bowler now. Brendan, isn’t a player allowed to improve?
May 20th 2012 @ 5:24pm
Wiljoy said | May 20th 2012 @ 5:24pm | Report comment
You obviously are very a one eyed pom,I have been watching first class cricket fo rnearly 70 years and I could namer 20 or more seam bowler that would leave Anderson for dead.
May 23rd 2012 @ 1:36am
Rowdy said | May 23rd 2012 @ 1:36am | Report comment
Anderson’s not a seam bowler.
I agree up to a point though – he’s no Trueman. I think Jimmy’s more like the 70s English bowlers Chris Old and Mike Hendrick, who could also swing the ball, but generally either pitched it too short or made it swing too much to actually be in danger of cleaning up.
Broad, though, definitely benefits from having Anderson at the other end – the batsman relaxes for a split-second and he’s gone.
May 20th 2012 @ 11:10pm
Johnno said | May 20th 2012 @ 11:10pm | Report comment
Paul Reiffell was a beautiful seam and swing bowler who didn’t get the credit he deserved. Much better than Anderson any day of the week, and jason Gillespie could swing the ball as much as Anderson too.
May 21st 2012 @ 9:09am
Disco said | May 21st 2012 @ 9:09am | Report comment
Reiffel was good but nowhere near as consistently good as Anderson is now.