Six overs. 46 runs. Only the wicket of Adam Gilchrist who clobbered 124 on an MCG deck. That's how my first experience with James Anderson was during the VB Tri-series match on a chilling December in 2002.
Sharing the new ball with James Kirtley, he swung the ball but had no control over line and length - the outcome was bad. Anderson aka Jimmy gave me and others the impression that he was just another of those English talents since the 90s who will fade like the early morning mist.
Did he fade?
A few months later, Jimmy cut the batting order of a Pakistan team in Cape Town during the 2003 World Cup that would surrender to anyone and, a few weeks later, Jimmy would take the Zimbabwe batting lineup to the cleaners on debut as a Test cricketer. A few months later, he humiliated Pakistan again at The Oval.
Still, it was not enough.
He experienced, Test cricket requires more from him.
In white-ball cricket - a bowler can sustain by bowling particular numbers of overs but in red-ball format, raw talents fade if more hard work and discipline are not put in.
The emergence of Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard, Simon Jones and Andrew Flintoff who could bowl at pace and with discipline were preferred over raw talents.
Anderson remained a model for magazines and a cricketer of coloured clothes.
But he was not a lacklustre customer.
While grinding in County Cricket, Anderson witnessed new blokes in Town creating waves on the English shores and beyond.
Dale Steyn was taking wickets for fun. The line, length, cutters and wobble seam of Mohammad Asif reminded the experts of Fazal Mahmood. Mohammad Amir's expertise with seam bowling was lethal. The slinger Lasith Malinga was a sensation.
Brett Lee and Shoaib Akhtar's pace was still creating havoc.
Duncan Fletcher preferred pace and chose Liam Plunket and Saj Mahmood ahead of him. Jimmy tried to change his action to gain extra pace and almost lost his ability to move the ball and bowl those beautiful seaming deliveries.
Anderson could realize that he was not Shoaib or Brett Lee but swing and seam are his strength. He needed to add a bit more to his bowling armoury so he could sustain himself in Test cricket.
Asif and Amir ended up rotting in jail. Malinga gave up Test cricket. Steyn preferred to build a career in IPL and lost his rhythm. But Anderson kept away from all the Taamasha and polished his patience and focus - galvanizing his skills.
Jimmy mastered the wobble seam of Asif. His seamers became as effective as Amir. The control was like Glenn McGrath. Bowling the top of the off-stump consistently was his motto. He maximized the pitch. Adjusted quickly. Spell by spell his intent to take wickets increased. He became a workhorse.
At one point the stars aligned.
The shine on either side of the ball is perfect. So is the state of the pitch and the dampness in the air or no dampness, but hot and humid dominating the proceedings.
The feet landed in the optimal spots on the popping crease. The fingers grasped the seam at a perfect angle. The wrist cocked. The ball found the ideal length and kissed the bat's edge. A fielder or the wicketkeeper was alert. Wickets started to tumble.
After 21 years - 40,037 deliveries had been bowled including 704 Test wickets. 364 wickets since January 2014 at an average of 22.57, 224 wickets after 35 at an average of 22.71 and 92 wickets on hostile Asian conditions at an average of 27.51.
Since his debut he has bowled, 4 percent of the seam deliveries were bowled by him. He ran almost 430 miles to bowl in white clothes for England. He digested all the hostile conditions and tougher challenges - won most of them to have his name written in golden letters.
From nothing in Test cricket, he ended up as one of the all-time best seam bowlers in the history of Test cricket.
Jimmy has proven that age is just a number if a person never gives up trying - hard work and patience always beat talent.
Thank You
Faisal Caesar
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