Sitting in the Mound Stand at Lord’s as a punter and hearing “bowling from the Pavilion End, James Anderson” was genuinely goosebump-worthy.
Mere minutes before the 41-year-old, who had been handed a forced retirement by the England and Wales Cricket Board, finished his career just four wickets shy of Shane Warne’s total, he walked out onto the hallowed turf of the Home of Cricket knowing it would be his last innings in the Test arena.
The boy from Burnley, now with 704 wickets to his name, strolled out with a tear in his eye to a raucous Lord’s cricket ground. It was otherworldly.
The seamer will go down as the best pacer to ever do it, knowing full well few, if any, will get anywhere near his record of scalps at the highest level of the game.
Anderson left us salivating
Cricket fans were in awe of his worst balls of the Test match and practically salivating at his best. The Englishman put on a show for his adoring fans.
Against a West Indies side without the fight and dogged determination usually associated with their brand of cricket, Anderson – along with the rest of the bowling attack – were in their element.
The Lord’s buzz, the constant hum of 30,000 fans between each ball, fell silent for Anderson in anticipation of his swing bowling, something many say we will never see again.
He concluded his final Test with figures of four wickets and 10 maidens for 58 runs in 26.4 overs as England won by more than an innings in three days.
His supposed successor, Gus Atkinson, shone for the England bigwigs, emancipating their feeling of great regret for sidelining Lancashire’s Anderson.
The 26-year-old took 12 wickets with seven maidens for 106 runs from 26 overs. His first innings seven-for equalled the best debut figures for an England player in history.
But James Anderson, Jimmy to many of us, is more than numbers; he is the embodiment of fast bowling, pressure and determination.
Anderson interview
Goodbye
He has won home and away series in India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan and more – he has been an ever present for the national team for over two decades and a source of inspiration to many aiming to emulate him.
At Lord’s this week we saw Jayden Seales, Shamar Joseph and Alzarri Joseph – the great and good of the future of West Indian bowling – talk to Anderson, undoubtedly picking the stalwart’s brain.
The man is a legend. And he could be, given the development of ODI and T20 International cricket, one of the very last to receive such a send-off in the five-day game – Virat Kohli, Steve Smith and Joe Root aside.
But Anderson has an aura. In many a session in the Eric Hollies stand of Edgbaston, the Mound stand of Lord’s or the Western Terrace at Headingley has he conjured thousands to sing his name like cricket has never seen before.
But the icon will be missed from beyond the shores of England, too. His career will live on and us fans who have been lucky enough to witness it should never forget that buzz that comes as a part and parcel of Anderson’s bowling.