It was a slow sort of day’s play at Lord’s, a prop-your-hands-behind-your-head, and swing-your-feet-up-on-the-chair-in-front-of-you sort of afternoon. The match has been drifting towards a predictable finish ever since the West Indies’ batting collapse on Wednesday morning, and midway through the second day MCC staff were already worrying about whether or not they ought to prepare an announcement about ticket refunds on the third. No one else around the ground seemed to be too worried. The sun was out, and the stands buzzed with idle chit chat about this and that, shoes, ships, sealing wax, facts and stats about Jimmy Anderson.
These have become a genre of their own, like those old Chuck Norris jokes. Turns out Anderson has bowled just under 4% of all the deliveries the England team have ever sent down in Test cricket, and taken just over 4% of all their wickets too. If you add up the yardage he’s covered while running in to bowl, the total would cover the distance from Lord’s to the cricket ground in Berwick-upon-Tweed. He has bowled more balls in Test cricket than 34 of the 40 English fast bowlers who made their debut after him combined. And he has bowled more maidens than all but 30 of the other 492 men who bowled for England did overs.
